Durang Outdoes Himself

Billy Magnussen & Kristine Nielson

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Yes, the title is quite a mouthful, and when telling people about the play, if you do see it, you'll just say "that Vanya thing" or something along those lines. But so what? This is by far Durang's best play yet in his long career. And in the hands of this superb cast, it shines far beyond my expectations. Usually, I go into a Durang play expecting over the top sarcasm and I usually leave exhausted or dissatisfied. And, it's not always because of the writing. Often it's because his plays are extremely difficult to stage in a way that keeps the audience believing they are watching the struggles of real people and not just strange cartoons of humanity. Often the actors and the director don't understand what is necessary to make his work shine. The key is that no matter how over the top the character goes or the situation dictates, the audience must never fully reflect on the fact that what they are seeing is so ridiculous it could never happen in a million years. You have to make them believe, at least for an hour or two. The way you do this as an actor is to commit one hundred percent to the shred of truth in whatever the situation happens to be and never, ever let go of it.

Now, in this new production the actors were helped tremendously by Durang in that all the characters had depth and something very real and believable at stake. This wasn't always the case in some of his prior plays.

And this cast with Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen, Billy Magnussen and Genevieve Angelson play this show to perfection. Mixing various Chekov themes, Durang and his troop create a tongue in cheek, yet still reverent homage to the great master.

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Official Site

 

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The One Man MacBeth

Last night I dragged my jet lagged body over to The Ethyl Barrymore Theatre to see the the otherworldly Alan Cumming perform the entirety of Shakespeare's MacBeth virtually by himself. Yes, he played nearly every character himself. Set in a hospital mental institution with two other actors serving as medical staff and occasional voices of the witches, they monitored Cumming character as he did the entire play in his hospital room. You got the feeling that Cumming the mental patient performs the play as ritual quite often and the staff was studying him for the sake of science. It was a fascinating way to justify the awkwardness of performing the entire play alone.

 

Cumming is phenomenal. He inhabits each character with just enough differentiation to prevent it from becoming farcical. In fact his only character that approaches silliness is Duncan, whom he portrays as sort of a "Queenly" King. It was welcome humor given the weightiness of the rest of his performance.

 

The thing that impressed me the most is that Cumming's MacBeth is not the hardened warrior, but rather a powerful man who allowed himself to be influenced by his wife and others into doing something he normally would never have done: murder for power. At the end he comes to this realization in one of the most heart wrenching moments I have ever seen on stage. I found myself completely empathizing with the man MacBeth and his unfortunate fate in a way I didn't know was possible with this character. The "sound and fury" speech was one of the best Shakespeare moments I have ever seen. This MacBeth became a boy lost, a boy realizing that he was utterly alone in the world, and that his past choices brought him to this hopeless spot. It was so sad and so utterly enthralling.

http://www.macbethonbroadway.com/

ABOUT THE SHOW

Tony Award winner (Cabaret) and two-time Emmy nominee (“The Good Wife”) Alan Cumming has returned to Broadway in a “bravura performance” (Entertainment Weekly) of Shakespeare's darkest and most powerful tragedy, Macbeth.

Directed by Tony winner John Tiffany (Once) and Andrew Goldberg, this “stirring turn by Alan Cumming packing theatrical thunder and lightning” (Daily News) is set in a clinical room deep within a dark psychiatric unit. Cumming is the lone patient, reliving the infamous story and inhabiting each role himself. Closed circuit television camera watch the patient's every move as the walls of the psychiatric ward come to life in a visually stunning multi-media theatrical experience.

You cannot miss Alan Cumming in this breathtaking 100-minute “radical re-imagining” (Variety) of Shakespeare’s notorious tale of desire, ambition and the supernatural.

"MESMERIZING THEATER. IT HITS THE DAMNED SPOT."
- Entertainment Weekly

"A TRIUMPH! ALAN CUMMING IS DAZZLING."
- Newsday

"THRILLING & WICKED SMART."
- New York Magazine

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Two Shows, Two Slices of Life

I am now finishing up with one of the most demanding times of my life. Being somewhat out of my mind, I decided to both direct a play and rehearse and perform in a musical, at the same time. I always knew I could do it, the problem I was having was the concern that I wouldn't be able to direct the play, The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard, with the commitment that this show requires. I was concerned mostly about letting down the actors, who were all excited about the project. It turns out that my worries were unnecessary in that the show has been a huge success. What I learned from the whole experience is that those of us who obsess with getting things "right" sometimes spin our wheels doing unnecessary work just so that we feel like we're doing something useful. The bottom line is that I simply didn't have time to do anything other than what was absolutely necessary to make sure that the story was being told well and with heart. The set is simple, the costumes are simple, the props are basic. Fortunately, I had the help of a top notch lighting designer, Ed Hunter, who made our stage look beautiful. I did spend a lot time on the sound. But mostly, I concentrated on the acting, collaborating with the immensely talented company of actors that I was fortunate enough to find. It's been quite a ride and a great learning experience.

The Game Show Show at The Retro Dome

Michael Champlin & Carla Pauli in The Real Thing

 

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Mrs. Warren's Profession Directors Note

I just finished directing the great Shaw play at The Pear Avenue Theatre. I just thought I'd share the note I wrote for the program.

From the Show Program...

There is a figure that inhabits the Egyptian wing of The Louvre in Paris called, The Seated Scribe. It was sculpted by an unknown artist sometime between 3800 and 1710 B.C. It simply depicts an Egyptian scribe sitting crossed – legged, holding a partially rolled papyrus scroll in his left hand. His right hand must have held a brush, now missing. If you were spending a day racing around The Louvre, you could easily just pass it by. However, if this scribe happened to catch your eye as you were hurrying off to see the Mona Lisa, you might just be stopped in your tracks. What appeared, from a distance to be rather ordinary, may suddenly move you to the very core of your being. For this little scribe has eyes that seem to look through you. His eyes penetrate your walls of pretense. All at once you see that he sees you, really sees you, and you become captivated, unable to look away. You might even stay there for an hour or so just staring in wonder. And so it is with Mrs. Warren's Profession. The more you hear the words spoken through the voices of talented actors, the longer they work their way into your mind, you realize that you have had the good fortune of being forever changed by something universally human and infinitely wise.

The show runs through July 15th.

www.thepear.org

 

A Birthday Wish to The Bard

Sometime within the last week in 1564, the world's greatest playwright was born in the small village of Stratford Upon Avon.

Happy Birthday Mr. Shakespeare!