How many productions of KING LEAR have I seen? I remember Morris Carnovsky, Paul Scofield in the great Peter Brook production, John Wood, Robert Stephens, Brian Cox in a fascinating Deborah Warner production, Ian McKellan. I also remember a production at Playmakers Repertory Theatre in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that ranks as the worst production of Shakespeare I have ever seen and one of the worst productions of any play I have ever seen. I shouldn't just mention Lear; for the play is as much about Edgar, Gloucester and Kent as it is about the old king.One thing is clear: there is so much to this play that no director or cast can get it all and different productions emphasize different aspects of the play. In the recent Trevor Nunn production, McKellan brought out the humor in Lear's role while the fine Ben Meyjes made Edgar's suffering almost unbearable. No production made me think more about this fascinating, dark play than Michael Grandage's current production at the Donmar. This is ironic since the playing area, the ceiling placed over it and the edges of the circle are covered in whitewashed boards. Visually, the production looks washed out, like over-exposed black and white film. The characters are mostly in black -- the few bits of color are almost shocking. The lighting is almost entirely white. On this bare set -- no furnishings until a throne is brought in for Lear's reunion with Cordelia -- Grandage offers a fast paced Lear. Actors for one scene are entering as characters from the previous scene speak their final lines. There are enough cuts -- mostly in the final acts -- to get the production to two hours and fifty minutes including the interval. There are no armies of attendants. In this small theater, KING LEAR can be performed effectively with an ensemble of sixteen fine actors.
What this KING LEAR offers is a stark picture of good and evil, striving and suffering. The play is almost a moral parable of what happens to a world when people surrender their most important human trait -- compassion. In this stark production, the heartless grasping of Goneril, Regan and Edmind seemed all the more frightening. They were so matter-of-fact in their brutality. There was no chewing of the scenery from the nasty sisters or Edmund, just simple, cold ambition, greed and desire. One missed the usual sense of humor actors find in Edmund. Alec Newman's bastard was too heartless to be funny, but his interpretation worked in this context. The good characters were superbly played. Reliable Paul Jesson, who always gives a superb performance, was a sweet, clueless Gloucester, trying to do the right thing but unaware there could be such evil. Gwilym Lee's Edgar, the polestar of good in this production, evolved through his testing into a real hero. One saw Lear and Edgar as the central relationship in the play -- mad old man learning to "see better" and young man feigning madness while he learns about human suffering. Two naked souls in the tempest. It seemed absolutely right that Edgar got the last word. Gina McKee and Justine Mitchell wisely did not play the usual harridans. They were women who simply had no feeling for their fathers or their husbands. All they had were anger and appetites. Yet I did, as one must, feel that right was on their side in the first hour of the play as they suffered their father's hundred knights and invective. You should not see Goneril and Regan's villainy right away. I didn't think Pippa Bennett-Warner did much more than speak Cordelia's lines. Why is she Lear's favorite and, if so, why isn't she willing to humor him in the first scene? What she says is absolutely rational, but we should see a reason why she won't play the game as her sisters do. Michael Hadley was effective as Kent and Ron Cook ably played the fool as a clown who realized that wit and humor were no antidote to the tempest that was brewing. When Lear and Edgar go off at the end of the first part, the Fool goes off in another direction, never to be seen again (not even at the curtain call). He sees that "Poor Tom of Bedlam" is a fitter companion for the mad king.
Now to Derek Jacobi's Lear. Everything was there. One had a sense that he was on the way to madness in the first scene. I have seen actos make more of certain moments in the first half of the play ("I will do such things as . . .I know not what"). When one sees a lot of Lears one tends to judge a performance by certain moments but here one had to look at the evolution of the character. There were surprises. The whispered "Blow winds, crack your cheeks", as if the storm Lear was invoking was not the one whirling around him. Grandage cut the storm sounds and brightened the lights as Lear spoke these lines to make it a mad, internal moment. He was at this best in the scenes with Edgar and the final scenes. For this seventy-something actor, KING LEAR was in great part a play about age. Edgar and Cordelia become the polestars of good because they revere age, even when the old are cruel, like Lear, or foolish, like Gloucester. Lear, Gloucester and Kent all realize that they have lived too long and seen too much to want to go on. It's up to the young to redeem this fallen world. A minor point, but it is amazing that at the finale of such a powerful performance the smallish, seventy-something Jacobi still carried in the not-so-petite Cordelia.
At the end, after Edgar has spoken those interesting final lines (the text gives them to Albany, but it seemed right for Edgar to speak them. Albany has not really earned these lines.) -- "The weight of this sad time we must obey,/Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most: we that are young/Shall never see so much, nor live so long" -- the lights brighten and we hear birdsong. The natural world will go on. The sun will rise. Birds will sing. But mankind must live to a higher order than the mere "Nature" Edmund invokes. The three surviving good men -- Albany, Edgar and Kent -- are there. The evil has been purged, but some good people have suffered and died as well.
Michael Grandage's production reminded me that this is one of the greatest plays ever written, perhaps the greatest, but also the darkest. We watch what happens when people do not act humanely and the cost of trying to do good when the moral order breaks down. One can think of big things like the holocaust, or smaller tragedies like the shooting in Arizona last week, a byproduct not only of madness, but also of the total breakdown in civil dscourse in my native land thanks in part to people making millions of dollars being uncivil on radio and television and setting a horrible example of behavior in a democracy. Sermon ended.). Purists may quibble at the cuts and the reassignmnt of some lines, but this KING LEAR does more than tell a story. It gets at the heart of the play. On both sides of us, peopple whispered "Wow" as the lights went down at the end. Brits don't often say "Wow." It was deserved. It was also interesting to note the number of actors in the audience last night. I saw one fine young actor who plays one of the leads in the current National Theatre HAMLET watch intently. Even for a good actor, this production offered lessons in acting.
KING LEAR, directed by Michael Grandage, designed by Christopher Oran. Donmar Warehouse Theatre. January 12, 2011.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Monday, 10 January 2011
THEATER ECONOMICS
This past weekend we saw the delightful MIDSUMMER for £15 a ticket (unreserved) and a superb concert by the BBC Symphony led by the charismatic John Wilson for £12.80 a ticket (orchestra stalls seats). This week I will see Derek Jacobi in KING LEAR for £18 (front row circle), a critically acclaimed revival of THE GLASS MENAGERIE for £10 (front row orchestra stalls) and a revival of a Graham Greene play for £9 (unreserved). That's £65 pounds (a little over $100) for five performances. An orchestra seat for a Broadway show is upwards of $135 before all those handling fees are added on ($75 or so for Off-Broadway and non-profit theaters). This means that theater is affordable, not much more expensive than going to a movie. Granted, none of the productions I saw last week or are seeing this week are West End commercial productions which are considerably more expensive, but seldom as interesting as what is running off West End or on the fringe. They now have a top of around £60 a ticket (around $96 which is still $40 cheaper than Broadway). But one can see a lot of great theater without going to the West End. One goes there for big stars and big musicals.
My point is that one can go to the theater regularly in London. It needn't be a special occasion. This means that one feels more adventurous. I will gamble on a new play at £10-£20 a ticket. I would be unlikely to do so at $135 a ticket. Here the level of acting is so consistently high that you are likely to get as good, if not better, performances on the fringe as on the West End.
I don't include the Royal National Theatre in my argument. Their productions are usually excellent, though they seldom get the best of the new plays. As a national theater, it should be affordable, but except for the discounted summer productions in the largest of the theaters, their prices are inching close to those on the West End. Under 25s can get in relatively cheaply and over 60s get a deal on the weekday matinees but with a £44 top, you don't gamble on National productions unless it is something you feel you must see.
Like New York, there is a half price ticket booth and on weekdays most shows are available. I have noticed that a lot of shows are no longer offering half price tickets, but something like 2/3 or 3/4 price tickets.
The point of all this is -- if you are a theater fan and want to glut on theater, London is the place to be.
My point is that one can go to the theater regularly in London. It needn't be a special occasion. This means that one feels more adventurous. I will gamble on a new play at £10-£20 a ticket. I would be unlikely to do so at $135 a ticket. Here the level of acting is so consistently high that you are likely to get as good, if not better, performances on the fringe as on the West End.
I don't include the Royal National Theatre in my argument. Their productions are usually excellent, though they seldom get the best of the new plays. As a national theater, it should be affordable, but except for the discounted summer productions in the largest of the theaters, their prices are inching close to those on the West End. Under 25s can get in relatively cheaply and over 60s get a deal on the weekday matinees but with a £44 top, you don't gamble on National productions unless it is something you feel you must see.
Like New York, there is a half price ticket booth and on weekdays most shows are available. I have noticed that a lot of shows are no longer offering half price tickets, but something like 2/3 or 3/4 price tickets.
The point of all this is -- if you are a theater fan and want to glut on theater, London is the place to be.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
MIDSUMMER
Despite all the unnecessary, elephantine musicals based on movies that don't need to be turned into musicals and greatest hits compilations turned into musicals, there has been a lot of healthy experimentation in musical theater in the last few years. NEXT TO NORMAL, BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, and THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS are examples of new and veteran creators rethinking what the musical can be and how it can address the world outsde the theater. Alas, two of the three bombed on Broadway which is now dependent on tourists who want large-scale, mindless entertainment. Many of them don't speak English (given the woeful lyrics of some f these shows, that is a virtue). If original, creative musicals are going to survive, they are going to be on a smaller scale and in some sort of non-profit theater dedicated to nurturing new work. Like serious drama, the serious musical has become an endangered species that needs protection away from Broadway or the West End in London. Recent small-scale revivals of past musicals has proven that good shows can also benefit from clever, minimalist productions.
MIDSUMMER, a play with music by David Greig with songs by Gordon McIntyre, is an example of a lovely, small-scale musical. Two actors with guitars comprise the entire cast and band. The show was first performed to great acclaim at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. This is the second London run of a little show that has now been successfully mounted all over the world. With the right two performers it is a delightful adult musical.
Helena is a thirty-five year old lawyer with a dismal romantic track record and a tendency to drink too much. Bob is a small-time gangster facing his thirty-fifth birthday and some serious questions about how he is going to spend the rest of his life. He is one of those sad souls who sees high school as the best time of his life. This unhappy, self-loathing couple meet in an Edinburgh wine bar. The play shows us their weekend together which takes them all over the city they both love. Their forty-eight hours is a final bout of total irresponsibility funded by fifteen thousand pounds Bob was supposed to deposit into a gangster's bank account. Though they don't want to admit it, they are falling in love. On paper, these walking disaster areas don't sound like the sort of raw material for a delightful, feelgood evening of theater, but in the telling and acting, MIDSUMMER is a joy to behold.
Bob and Helena's weekend misadventures are recounted in scenes, narration, songs, even a bit of audience participation. Greig's script could be a less glamorous version of one of those Richard Curtis romantic comedies, a Scots NOTTING HILL. But it has been shaped as a lively theatrical experience that consistently breaks the fourth wall and embraces its audience. There is no scenery except a bed and some very clever signage and virtually no costume changes. The two actors also play the small supporting roles. This is theater as play in the best sense. The simple, folksy songs fit perfectly. MIDSUMMER has received critical raves here and deserves them.
The two charming, tireless performers, Cora Bissett and Matthew Pidgeon, quickly win the audience's affection. They're not great singers -- that would be out of character, but they totally inhabit their characters.
This is not a show to take the kiddies to. It is sexually candid. More important, it is about what it means to be grown up. A+
MIDSUMMER is now being performed at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, North London, a 200 seat theatre that offers some of the most interesting contemporary theater work. The Tricycle produced THE GREAT GAME: AFGHANISTAN, the most exciting piece of new theater I have seen in the past few years. I read in the paper that on the basis of the play cycle's successful American tour the Pentagon in presenting it to its senior personnel. Too bad it wasn't availabe to them ten years ago!
MIDSUMMER, a play with music by David Greig and Gordon McIntyre, directed by David Greig. Tricycle Theatre. January 8, 2011.
MIDSUMMER, a play with music by David Greig with songs by Gordon McIntyre, is an example of a lovely, small-scale musical. Two actors with guitars comprise the entire cast and band. The show was first performed to great acclaim at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. This is the second London run of a little show that has now been successfully mounted all over the world. With the right two performers it is a delightful adult musical.
Helena is a thirty-five year old lawyer with a dismal romantic track record and a tendency to drink too much. Bob is a small-time gangster facing his thirty-fifth birthday and some serious questions about how he is going to spend the rest of his life. He is one of those sad souls who sees high school as the best time of his life. This unhappy, self-loathing couple meet in an Edinburgh wine bar. The play shows us their weekend together which takes them all over the city they both love. Their forty-eight hours is a final bout of total irresponsibility funded by fifteen thousand pounds Bob was supposed to deposit into a gangster's bank account. Though they don't want to admit it, they are falling in love. On paper, these walking disaster areas don't sound like the sort of raw material for a delightful, feelgood evening of theater, but in the telling and acting, MIDSUMMER is a joy to behold.
Bob and Helena's weekend misadventures are recounted in scenes, narration, songs, even a bit of audience participation. Greig's script could be a less glamorous version of one of those Richard Curtis romantic comedies, a Scots NOTTING HILL. But it has been shaped as a lively theatrical experience that consistently breaks the fourth wall and embraces its audience. There is no scenery except a bed and some very clever signage and virtually no costume changes. The two actors also play the small supporting roles. This is theater as play in the best sense. The simple, folksy songs fit perfectly. MIDSUMMER has received critical raves here and deserves them.
The two charming, tireless performers, Cora Bissett and Matthew Pidgeon, quickly win the audience's affection. They're not great singers -- that would be out of character, but they totally inhabit their characters.
This is not a show to take the kiddies to. It is sexually candid. More important, it is about what it means to be grown up. A+
MIDSUMMER is now being performed at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, North London, a 200 seat theatre that offers some of the most interesting contemporary theater work. The Tricycle produced THE GREAT GAME: AFGHANISTAN, the most exciting piece of new theater I have seen in the past few years. I read in the paper that on the basis of the play cycle's successful American tour the Pentagon in presenting it to its senior personnel. Too bad it wasn't availabe to them ten years ago!
MIDSUMMER, a play with music by David Greig and Gordon McIntyre, directed by David Greig. Tricycle Theatre. January 8, 2011.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
ON THE 20TH CENTURY - Union Theatre
Over the past two years there has been a movement in London toward pocket-size revivals of classic American musicals. For years the 240 seat Donmar Warehouse has been mounting brilliant productions of Sondheim musicals (most recently PASSION) and serious musicals like Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's PARADE. Now even smaller fringe venues are beginning to follow suit. The seventry-five seat Union Theatre, under the railroad tracks near Waterloo Station specializes in musicals. The equally tiny Southwark Playhouse near London Bridge station is about to produce Sondheim's COMPANY. And now the claustrophobic King's Head pub theatre in Islington is producing a season of small-scale operas in modern revisions with piano accompaniment. These theatres offer excellent productions at bargain prices (£15 or less).
These very low budget revivals depend on directoral ingenuity and good performances to compensate for the lack of spectacle. These minimalist productions also put the spotlight on script and score with no smoke and mirrors to cover their inadequacies.
The first thing one remembers about the original Harold Prince production of ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY in 1978 was the gorgeous scenery, all silver and art deco. It was one of the most visually beautiful productions I have ever seen. It was also a brilliant, funny show with a fast-paced book and an extremely witty score and lyrics (Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green) that was closer to something like Bernstein's CANDIDE than the typical Broadway score. Coleman's score was very different from his catchy, tune-filled scores for SWEET CHARITY or BARNUM. There were no excerptable potential hit songs here. Everything fit character and situation and the style of the piece, more Rossini in places than Broadway. The music was as clever as the lyrics. The cast was brilliant -- John Cullum, Judy Kaye (replacing Madeleine Kahn), veteran comic Imogene Coca and the brilliant debut of Kevin Kline. Of course, something this sophisticated was lost in the giant St. James Theatre and, frankly, too intelligent for Broadway even in 1978 and ran for only a year. In 2011, it wouldn't stand a chance on Broadway.
The Union Theatre production, cleverly directed by Ryan McBryde (choreographer Drew McOnie) had a hard-working cast of eleven playing all the roles as well as serving as chorus. The only sceneery were pieces of luggage and two door units on wheels. The costumes were pure thrift shop. The band consisted of four saxophones and a piano. As usual with these fringe productions, there were no microphones (horray!). What can I say? It all worked and made one appreciate what a good show this is. The book was wisely trimmed to the essentials so the focus was on the wonderful score. The cast was fine. Where do they get all these talented people who must be paid next to nothing? Howard Samuels, who played the crafty impressario Oscar Jaffe, doesn't have much of a singing voice but is a great stage comic, sort of Nathan Lane with a larger bag of tricks. The role of film star Lily Garland is a difficult one, requiring a singer who can both sing coloratura and belt, sometimes in the same phrase. The original Lily, Madeleine Kahn, left the show after a couple of months, claiming that the demands of the score ruined her voice. Rebecca Vere sang it all and played the comedy well. Everyone else was fine, particularly Valda Aviks as the mad evangelist, Letitia Primrose. Her part was tailor-made for Imogene Coca, but Aviks made it seem like it was written for her. The cast threw themselves into the madcap spirit of the show.
Like the Union Theatre's IOLANTHE, the production of ON THE 20TH CENTURY managed to transcend the dumpy theater (though nothing could transcend the men's room!). Four stars!
ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Music by Cy Coleman. Book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Union Theatre. January 5, 2011.
These very low budget revivals depend on directoral ingenuity and good performances to compensate for the lack of spectacle. These minimalist productions also put the spotlight on script and score with no smoke and mirrors to cover their inadequacies.
The first thing one remembers about the original Harold Prince production of ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY in 1978 was the gorgeous scenery, all silver and art deco. It was one of the most visually beautiful productions I have ever seen. It was also a brilliant, funny show with a fast-paced book and an extremely witty score and lyrics (Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green) that was closer to something like Bernstein's CANDIDE than the typical Broadway score. Coleman's score was very different from his catchy, tune-filled scores for SWEET CHARITY or BARNUM. There were no excerptable potential hit songs here. Everything fit character and situation and the style of the piece, more Rossini in places than Broadway. The music was as clever as the lyrics. The cast was brilliant -- John Cullum, Judy Kaye (replacing Madeleine Kahn), veteran comic Imogene Coca and the brilliant debut of Kevin Kline. Of course, something this sophisticated was lost in the giant St. James Theatre and, frankly, too intelligent for Broadway even in 1978 and ran for only a year. In 2011, it wouldn't stand a chance on Broadway.
The Union Theatre production, cleverly directed by Ryan McBryde (choreographer Drew McOnie) had a hard-working cast of eleven playing all the roles as well as serving as chorus. The only sceneery were pieces of luggage and two door units on wheels. The costumes were pure thrift shop. The band consisted of four saxophones and a piano. As usual with these fringe productions, there were no microphones (horray!). What can I say? It all worked and made one appreciate what a good show this is. The book was wisely trimmed to the essentials so the focus was on the wonderful score. The cast was fine. Where do they get all these talented people who must be paid next to nothing? Howard Samuels, who played the crafty impressario Oscar Jaffe, doesn't have much of a singing voice but is a great stage comic, sort of Nathan Lane with a larger bag of tricks. The role of film star Lily Garland is a difficult one, requiring a singer who can both sing coloratura and belt, sometimes in the same phrase. The original Lily, Madeleine Kahn, left the show after a couple of months, claiming that the demands of the score ruined her voice. Rebecca Vere sang it all and played the comedy well. Everyone else was fine, particularly Valda Aviks as the mad evangelist, Letitia Primrose. Her part was tailor-made for Imogene Coca, but Aviks made it seem like it was written for her. The cast threw themselves into the madcap spirit of the show.
Like the Union Theatre's IOLANTHE, the production of ON THE 20TH CENTURY managed to transcend the dumpy theater (though nothing could transcend the men's room!). Four stars!
ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Music by Cy Coleman. Book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Union Theatre. January 5, 2011.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
I happen to be particularly fond of Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND and A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, both of which hold more interest for me than his more often revived THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Fortunately Wilde is often revived in London though, oddly, seldom at the National Theatre which doesn't seem very interested in one of England's greates playwrights.
Here's a revival that did what a revival should do -- give enormous pleasure to those seeing the fine play for the first time and shedding new light on the work for those familiar with the play. Lindsay Posner's production managed to make the social comedy and well made play melodrama all of a piece. There's a tendency in Wilde revivals for characters to pose and to preen at their witticisms. All the actors in this production managed to act and react like human beings. The center of the production was Elliot Cowan's Lord Goring, the brilliantly witty man about town. Cowan's Goring showed both the pose and the man under the pose who was painfully aware of his own inadequacies. He was throughout a great listener as well as a witty performer. Rachel Stirling's Lady Chiltern was not just a priggish young woman, but an intelligent, passionate one. Samantha Bond's villainous Mrs. Cheveley was a woman who wanted power in a man's world and kenw the price she paid for not playing by the rules. The always reliable Alexander Hanson captured Chiltern's ambition and his devotion to his wife.
Yes, the sets and costumes were gorgeous as they should be in a Wilde revival, but the production also reminded all of us in the audience that Wilde's comments on politics and human frailties are still pertinent even if his views on gender were shall we say unenlightened. I also felt in this production the presence of Wilde speaking through his characters his own awareness of the dangerous position in which he placed himself.
A great way to begin a new year of theatergoing.
AN IDEAL HUSBAND. Vaudeville Theatre. January 1, 2011
Here's a revival that did what a revival should do -- give enormous pleasure to those seeing the fine play for the first time and shedding new light on the work for those familiar with the play. Lindsay Posner's production managed to make the social comedy and well made play melodrama all of a piece. There's a tendency in Wilde revivals for characters to pose and to preen at their witticisms. All the actors in this production managed to act and react like human beings. The center of the production was Elliot Cowan's Lord Goring, the brilliantly witty man about town. Cowan's Goring showed both the pose and the man under the pose who was painfully aware of his own inadequacies. He was throughout a great listener as well as a witty performer. Rachel Stirling's Lady Chiltern was not just a priggish young woman, but an intelligent, passionate one. Samantha Bond's villainous Mrs. Cheveley was a woman who wanted power in a man's world and kenw the price she paid for not playing by the rules. The always reliable Alexander Hanson captured Chiltern's ambition and his devotion to his wife.
Yes, the sets and costumes were gorgeous as they should be in a Wilde revival, but the production also reminded all of us in the audience that Wilde's comments on politics and human frailties are still pertinent even if his views on gender were shall we say unenlightened. I also felt in this production the presence of Wilde speaking through his characters his own awareness of the dangerous position in which he placed himself.
A great way to begin a new year of theatergoing.
AN IDEAL HUSBAND. Vaudeville Theatre. January 1, 2011
BEST AND WORST OF 2010
BEST
1. AFTER THE DANCE. A perfect production of a gem of a play by Terence Rattigan, a playwright who is deservedly coming back into style. Oddly, this play has not received a major production since 1938. Magnificent cast with Nancy Carroll and Adrian Scarborough giving exemplary performances.
2. CLYBOURNE PARK. Bruce Norris's brilliant riff on Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN. Funny, angry, sad all at once. A perfect cast and production.
3. PUNK ROCK. Another great Simon Stephens play, this one about disaffected youth, but not a cliche in sight. As usual in Stephens's work, someone goes violently, momentraily berserk, but the meltdown says much about where we are right now.
4. RUINED. I loved the script, didn't like the New York production, but the perfect production at the Almeida proved me right about Lynn Nottage's powerful play about women surviving in war torn Africa.
5.DESIGN FOR LIVING. A superb production that proved that this long, sometimes preachy Noel Coward comedy can work. Brilliant performances from Andrew Scott, Lisa Dillon and Tom Burke.
6. ALIENS. Annie Baker's touching little play about two thirty-something losers and a teenage boy who just might make it. Lovely!
7. HAMLET. Rory Kinnear is simply the best Hamlet I have seen. The rest B+ but he's definitely A+.
8. PASSION. A revelatory production of Sondheim's problematic pice at the Donmar, proving it works best small scale.
9. WHITE GUARD. Howard Davies superb, well cast production of Bulkagov's play about a family trying to survive the various 1918 Russian revolutions.
10. SPRING STORM. A moving production of a piece of Tennessee Williams juvenalia. Flawed but showing the marks of a great playwright.
AND THE CRINGE MAKING MOMENTS . . .
LA BETE. A perhaps clever skit in rhymed couplets bloated into a tedious ninety minute play to showcase once again the irritating Mark Rylance. I know some people think he's a great actor. I think he's Britain's answer to Nathan Lane and from me that's not a compliment!
LOVE NEVER DIES. Incoherent mush. A sequel to PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. One of those productions when one asks "Why did they bother?" throughout. Great sets. I understand they have revised the script somewhat but the raw materials for a good musical simply aren't there. Like a score worth hearing, intelligent lyrics, an interesting story, characters.
PYGMALION. Rupert Everett giving the worst performance of the year. His co-star, Honeysuckly Weeks (I'm not kidding) looked like Eliza Doolittle's mother and almost matched Everett in awfulness.
Some comedies that shouldn't be revived -- SEASONS GREETINGS, WHEN WE ARE MARRIED
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (Broadway). One of many totally unnecessary musicals made from movies that are perfect in their own right. This one a particularly incoherent mess despite a starry cast. Awful score. Not all movies make good musicals!!!!!!!!!!
DON GIOVANNI at the English National Opera. I'm not a purist about opera productions but this one by Rufus Norris made the supposedly aristocratic, sexy Don into an ugly slob few women would be interested in. Poorly conducted. Mediocre cast. At the English National Opera prices, this is not good enough
THE NUTCRACKER at the English National Ballet. I am a sucker for The Nutcracker. I love the music, grew up with the Balanchine production, have fond memories of the American Ballet Theatre's quasi-Freudian production in the 1970s and think the Royal Ballet production is close to perfect. This one was a mess, rendering the story incoherent. Choreographer Wayne Eagling, a former star dancer, knows how to choreograph for men, but not for women. The dancers ranged from mediocre to poor. They wouldn't have made the corps of the Royal Ballet.
1. AFTER THE DANCE. A perfect production of a gem of a play by Terence Rattigan, a playwright who is deservedly coming back into style. Oddly, this play has not received a major production since 1938. Magnificent cast with Nancy Carroll and Adrian Scarborough giving exemplary performances.
2. CLYBOURNE PARK. Bruce Norris's brilliant riff on Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN. Funny, angry, sad all at once. A perfect cast and production.
3. PUNK ROCK. Another great Simon Stephens play, this one about disaffected youth, but not a cliche in sight. As usual in Stephens's work, someone goes violently, momentraily berserk, but the meltdown says much about where we are right now.
4. RUINED. I loved the script, didn't like the New York production, but the perfect production at the Almeida proved me right about Lynn Nottage's powerful play about women surviving in war torn Africa.
5.DESIGN FOR LIVING. A superb production that proved that this long, sometimes preachy Noel Coward comedy can work. Brilliant performances from Andrew Scott, Lisa Dillon and Tom Burke.
6. ALIENS. Annie Baker's touching little play about two thirty-something losers and a teenage boy who just might make it. Lovely!
7. HAMLET. Rory Kinnear is simply the best Hamlet I have seen. The rest B+ but he's definitely A+.
8. PASSION. A revelatory production of Sondheim's problematic pice at the Donmar, proving it works best small scale.
9. WHITE GUARD. Howard Davies superb, well cast production of Bulkagov's play about a family trying to survive the various 1918 Russian revolutions.
10. SPRING STORM. A moving production of a piece of Tennessee Williams juvenalia. Flawed but showing the marks of a great playwright.
AND THE CRINGE MAKING MOMENTS . . .
LA BETE. A perhaps clever skit in rhymed couplets bloated into a tedious ninety minute play to showcase once again the irritating Mark Rylance. I know some people think he's a great actor. I think he's Britain's answer to Nathan Lane and from me that's not a compliment!
LOVE NEVER DIES. Incoherent mush. A sequel to PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. One of those productions when one asks "Why did they bother?" throughout. Great sets. I understand they have revised the script somewhat but the raw materials for a good musical simply aren't there. Like a score worth hearing, intelligent lyrics, an interesting story, characters.
PYGMALION. Rupert Everett giving the worst performance of the year. His co-star, Honeysuckly Weeks (I'm not kidding) looked like Eliza Doolittle's mother and almost matched Everett in awfulness.
Some comedies that shouldn't be revived -- SEASONS GREETINGS, WHEN WE ARE MARRIED
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (Broadway). One of many totally unnecessary musicals made from movies that are perfect in their own right. This one a particularly incoherent mess despite a starry cast. Awful score. Not all movies make good musicals!!!!!!!!!!
DON GIOVANNI at the English National Opera. I'm not a purist about opera productions but this one by Rufus Norris made the supposedly aristocratic, sexy Don into an ugly slob few women would be interested in. Poorly conducted. Mediocre cast. At the English National Opera prices, this is not good enough
THE NUTCRACKER at the English National Ballet. I am a sucker for The Nutcracker. I love the music, grew up with the Balanchine production, have fond memories of the American Ballet Theatre's quasi-Freudian production in the 1970s and think the Royal Ballet production is close to perfect. This one was a mess, rendering the story incoherent. Choreographer Wayne Eagling, a former star dancer, knows how to choreograph for men, but not for women. The dancers ranged from mediocre to poor. They wouldn't have made the corps of the Royal Ballet.
SEASON'S GREETINGS (the play)
Sometimes a theater has to revive a play to see whether it is worth reviving. The proof is in the production. The National put one of its best directors, Marianne Elliott, and a cast of star comics, all known from television as well as the stage (Catherine Tate, Mark Gatiss, Katherine Parkinson, Nicola Walker) to the task of reviving Alan Ayckbourn's 1980 comedy, SEASONS GREETINGS. Alas, all that talent could not bring the corpse to life.
Ayckbourn was sort of the Neil Simon of Britain. He had a highly successful career in the commerical theater in the 1960 and 1970s writing comedies about British middle class folk, prosperous, but not contented. The plays were basically situation comedies with a touch of seriousness. Some of them (THE NORMAN CONQUEST, ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR) were hits on both sides of the Atlantic and very funny in their time. But, as Neil Simon's comedies are hard to revive now (even his best work, the fine BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, flopped in a Broadway revival last year). Tastes in comedy change -- the history of theater proves that few comedies from the past stand the test of time.
There are half a dozen funny moments in SEASONS GREETINGS separated by setups that last far too long. You see the payoff coming long before it does. You can build a mystery on such prolonged foreplay, but not a comedy. Director Marianne Elliott made the mistake of taking the play more seriously than it deserves. I think she saw in it a play about frustrated women and inadequate men and tried to get her talented cast to play it realistically. Unfortunately the characters are thinner than cardboard and the attempts to lend them more depth only showed how thin they were. The cast deserves A for effort, but I wanted to scream "Faster, louder." It was all too tasteful. Ayckbourn wrote his plays for an intimate theater-in-the-round in Scarborough. The enormous three level set on the giant stage of the Lyttleton seemed to swallow the slight play up.
The really good performers were interesting to watch. The weaker ones were not, particularly Katherine Parkinson (from the hit tv series DOC MARTIN), a one note actress who always gets tiresome on stage. She was the very weak link in Mike Bartlett's COCK last winter and in this one as well.
The performance received polite applause from a New Years Eve audience. Not only of the National's finest hours. In this age of budget cuts, it's a shame to see so much money wasted on minor fluff.
SEASONS GREETINGS by Alan Ayckbourn. Royal National Theatre. December 31, 2010
Ayckbourn was sort of the Neil Simon of Britain. He had a highly successful career in the commerical theater in the 1960 and 1970s writing comedies about British middle class folk, prosperous, but not contented. The plays were basically situation comedies with a touch of seriousness. Some of them (THE NORMAN CONQUEST, ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR) were hits on both sides of the Atlantic and very funny in their time. But, as Neil Simon's comedies are hard to revive now (even his best work, the fine BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS, flopped in a Broadway revival last year). Tastes in comedy change -- the history of theater proves that few comedies from the past stand the test of time.
There are half a dozen funny moments in SEASONS GREETINGS separated by setups that last far too long. You see the payoff coming long before it does. You can build a mystery on such prolonged foreplay, but not a comedy. Director Marianne Elliott made the mistake of taking the play more seriously than it deserves. I think she saw in it a play about frustrated women and inadequate men and tried to get her talented cast to play it realistically. Unfortunately the characters are thinner than cardboard and the attempts to lend them more depth only showed how thin they were. The cast deserves A for effort, but I wanted to scream "Faster, louder." It was all too tasteful. Ayckbourn wrote his plays for an intimate theater-in-the-round in Scarborough. The enormous three level set on the giant stage of the Lyttleton seemed to swallow the slight play up.
The really good performers were interesting to watch. The weaker ones were not, particularly Katherine Parkinson (from the hit tv series DOC MARTIN), a one note actress who always gets tiresome on stage. She was the very weak link in Mike Bartlett's COCK last winter and in this one as well.
The performance received polite applause from a New Years Eve audience. Not only of the National's finest hours. In this age of budget cuts, it's a shame to see so much money wasted on minor fluff.
SEASONS GREETINGS by Alan Ayckbourn. Royal National Theatre. December 31, 2010
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