Theater Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Relatively Speaking” (Brooks Atkinson Theater/ 2001-2012 season)

    Woody Allen once said, “Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.”

    Certainly this trio of comedies could be described as three light, fluffy interludes – perhaps in search of some substantial filling. Tenuously connected by the theme of family, the one-act plays are written by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen.

    Ethan Coen’s “Talking Cure” is set in a high-security mental institution and revolves around Larry (Danny Hoch), a hostile inmate, a former postal employee who argues about sanity and semantics with his frustrated Doctor (Jason Kravits), who is trying to rehabilitate him through psychotherapy.

    The second entry is Elaine May’s satirical “George Is Dead,” in which Carla (Lisa Emery) and her husband Michael (Grant Shaud) are bickering over her devotion to her elderly mother who is called Nanny (Patricia O’Connell) because, years ago, she was the nanny of a spoiled little rich girl named Doreen.  To their surprise, now-grown Doreen (Marlo Thomas) appears on the doorstep, declaring that her older husband, George, just died in a skiing accident in Aspen and she needs her dear old Nanny.

    Back in 2006, May wrote this skit as a vehicle tailored for Marlo Thomas, who’s most memorable as the vacuous, self-absorbed, widowed socialite, declaring, “I feel awful. What will I do? I don’t have the depth to feel this bad.”

    Saving the best for last, Woody Allen’s “Honeymoon Motel” is a silly, shtick-filled sex farce, set in the honeymoon suite of a tacky motel  – complete with a round bed – where newlyweds Jerry Spector (Steve Guttenberg) and Nina Roth (Ari Graynor) have sought refuge from their friends and relatives (Julie Kavner, Mark Linn-Baker, Richard Libertini, among others).  It seems Nina was supposed to marry Jerry’s stepson Paul (Bill Army) but eloped with her fiancé’s harried, middle-aged father instead.

    Intentionally or not, the situation evokes unsettling memories of Woody Allen’s marriage to his then-wife Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Li Previn.

    Unfortunately, director John Turturro lacks a deft touch with these three comedies, which could, perhaps, have been funnier if they’d been handled with a lighter touch. Or maybe not.  As it stands, the assemblage is only mildly amusing and seemingly destined for a rosy future as a staple in regional theater.

Susan Granger’s review of “Shirley Jones” (Edgerton Center for Performing Arts)

    The Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts at Sacred Heart University continues its popular American Legends series with an “Actors Studio-style” interview with 77 year-old Shirley Jones.

    Effusively introduced by Executive Director Jerry Goehring as “The First Lady of American Song,” Shirley Jones’ six-decade career includes musicals like “Oklahoma1,” Carousel” and the “Music Man,” along with Mrs. Partridge in TV’s “The Partridge Family,” and winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1960 for her role opposite Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry.”

    Reminiscing about her life on stage, in film and on television, Ms. Jones (named after Shirley Temple) related how, after growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania and training at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, she launched her career while on vacation with her parents in New York City by auditioning for Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who put her under exclusive contract.

    Clad in a cardinal red pantsuit adorned with a sparkling dragonfly pin, she acknowledged that “Carousel” is still her favorite musical of all time, revealing that, originally, Frank Sinatra was supposed to have played Billy Bigelow in the movie but he split as the production began filming at Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and Ms. Jones phoned Gordon MacRae, asking him to step into that role.

    Often alluding to her first husband, Jack Cassidy, with whom she raised four children, including pop star stepson David Cassidy (whose mother was Evelyn Ward), Jones has 12 grandchildren, ranging in age from 30 to three months. For the past 34 years, she has been married to comedian Marty Ingels.

    While many of her anecdotes are familiar to those who followed her career, it’s still fun to hear them right from the source. Like how Burt Lancaster was the “best kisser,” how she won a lawsuit against the National Enquirer, why she almost posed for Playboy, and how it was nothing for Marlon Brando to want to do 60 takes when they were making the comedy “Bedtime Story.”

    “I never turned down a role, but I lost a couple,” she admits, adding “I felt lucky to be working.” Yet, when an audience member inquired if she’d consider “Dancing With the Stars,” Ms. Jones answered with a firm, declarative, “No,” explaining that exercising at the ladies’ gym Curves is all her arthritic knees can handle these days.

    A shrewd businesswoman, Ms. Jones concluded the program signing autographs but only for audience members who purchased her authorized $14 paper doll book, sold in the lobby.

Susan Granger’s review of “Garlic: The Musical” (Consiglio’s patio, New Haven, CT)

    Summer stock is a unique form of American theater. It began in the early part of the 20^th century when playwrights, directors, actors and producers wanted a summer venue for light entertainment. Often, barns were converted into theaters; other times, the festivities spilled onto patios.

    Writer Elizabeth Fuller has carved her own special summer theater niche at Consiglio’s Restaurant in New Haven’s historic Italian enclave on Wooster Street, presenting what she calls “spaghetti musicals.” Last year, it was “Nonna’s Summer Wine Party” and, before that, “The Luigi Board.”

    Now, it’s “Garlic: The Musical,” a spicy, interactive musical comedy which recounts how protective fortysomething Tony Bob (Barry McMurtrey) is determined to stop his adoptive sister Diana (Laura Papallo) from falling for Duke (Gary Cavello), a voracious vampire, on the family’s garlic ranch in Calabria, Italy. Inspired in a dream sequence by his guardian, Johnny Angel (Gary Cavello), Tony Bob drops out of Spumoni Heights Beauty School and becomes the concert promoter for GARLICSTOCK.

    There’s sing-along, dance-along music, primarily oldies from the ‘50s and ‘60s, orchestrated by PJ Letersky, along with good-natured audience participation. It’s great fun, like being at a celebratory party with 50 new friends. And the food is delicious, beginning with platters of hot, crusty garlic bread, followed by a crisp Caesar salad, vodka penne, chicken Florentine on a bed of fresh baby spinach and generous helpings of tiramisu for dessert. It’s authentic Southern Italian fare.

    And if the versatile performers seem far more professional than you’d expected, so are their resumes. Although she lip-syncs most of the time, Laura Papallo has performed with the Connecticut Light Opera Chorus and Battleboro Opera Theater; for the past 15 years, she’s been guest soloist in Venice, Verona, Sorrento, Sicily, Florence and Assisi. So it shouldn’t be as surprising as it is when she makes “Over the Rainbow” soar into the stars twinkling in the night sky. And Gary Cavello regularly appears in the Old Time Radio recreations at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts; he’s also published “Where I Ran Away, ” a book of poems/photos about his tour with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus.

    “Garlic: The Musical” runs on weekends all summer. Doors open on Friday and Saturday nights at 6 pm and 4 pm on Sundays. It’s $65 for the show and prix fixe menu. For reservations, call Consiglio’s Restaurant, 165 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT at 203-865-4489 (www.consiglios.com)

Susan Granger’s review of LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART (Westport Country Playhouse)

    As the play begins, a wind sock blows in the breeze atop Fire Island beach house and there’s the sound of the ocean. Four people are on-stage, motionless.  Sally (Maggie Lacey) stands pensively in front of an easel. Her husband Sam (John Ellison Conlee) is checking chemicals in the lap pool. His sister Chloe (Jean Gambatese) is in the kitchen. Chloe’s husband John (Chris Henry Coffey) is reading a newspaper.

    Scenic designer Andrew Jackson’s stunning wooden deck set sprawls across the stage like an Architectural Digest layout, and Chloe exclaims, “This is paradise…it’s heaven!”

    They’re celebrating the Fourth of July weekend together, yet each is quite alone, suffering individual isolation. After several miscarriages, Sally has just discovered she’s pregnant again. She inherited this beach house from her brother David, who recently died of AIDS, and she’s unsure whether to keep it or sell it, since it’s in the middle of a gay enclave. Sam’s supportive but saddled with his own pervasive prejudices and psychological uncertainties.  Chloe’s manic hyperactivity and Frenchified chatter covers her insecurity and vulnerability, while John is secretive about being treated for esophageal cancer.

    Playwright Terrence McNally cleverly captures the universality of our contemporary fear of intimacy and inability to communicate because, while the affluent couples seem to talk incessantly, they rarely listen to each other because” it’s too painful to think about what’s really going on.” Spotlighted soliloquies reveal their inner thoughts, as the tension builds subtly, amid chatter from the unseen gay neighbors partying in the houses on either side of them. And a man may be drowning in the distance.   

    Staging this intricate, four-person ensemble piece – with its tonal changes and melancholy transitions – is a major theatrical challenge which perceptive Artistic Director Mark Lamos meets brilliantly. Each actor resonates in his or her own way, defining the precarious balance of the four deeply flawed, yet diverse personalities. Maggie Lacey exudes quiet desperation. John Ellison Conlee is sadly self-doubting. Exuding unrelenting energy and comic ditziness, Jean Gambates is obnoxiously domestic as the wannabe performer who sings show tunes at inappropriate times, while Chris Henry Coffee is acerbic and angry, oozing preppy elitism.

    Revealing compassionate insights into marriage, family, loss and love, “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” is at the Westport Country Playhouse through July 30^th.

Susan Granger’s review of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” (Foxwoods Theater: 2011-2012 season)

    After all the hassles, hullabaloo and hoopla, this mega-budgeted rock musical by U2’s Bono and the Edge is a colossal disappointment except, perhaps, for privileged children and non-English-speaking tourists who seem delighted with the high-flying acrobatics.

    Lifted from the fantasy of Marvel Comics, Spidey is actually the alter-ego of a nerdy teenager named Peter Parker (Reeve Carney), who is bitten by a radioactive spider during a school field trip to a science laboratory, causing much confusion for his wannabe girl-friend, Mary Jane Watson (Jennifer Damiano). As if in a dream, Parker becomes the superhuman Spider Man, under the watchful gaze of his guardian, Arachne (T.V. Carpio).  Armed with his trusty camera, Parker works for blustery newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson (Michael Mulheren), emerging as the only reporter able to photograph the elusive Spider Man. And that puts him in direct opposition with the megalomaniacal scientist who becomes the ferocious masked mutant known as the Green Goblin (Patrick Page from “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas”).

    “I’m a $65 million circus tragedy,” the villainous Goblin declares. “Well, more like $75 million.” (Cue knowing audience laughter.)

    Originally directed and co-written by Julie Taymor (“The Lion King”) with Glenn Berger, it’s now helmed by Philip William McKinley, perhaps best known for working with the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, and re-imagined by comic book aficionado Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.  Russian designer George Tsypin’s eye-popping, color-splashed dreamscapes are spectacular, particularly Manhattan’s Chrysler building viewed from above, as are Kyle Cooper’s projection designs: ZAP! POW! SPLAT!

    So what about the music by Bono and the Edge? It’s significant that the show’s most memorable moment occurs when the Green Goblin ‘plays’ Rogers and Hart’s “I’ll Take Manhattan” on a prop piano.

      After more than 180 ‘previews’ and a lackluster opening, it’s significant that the producers are working on a simpler, cheaper version of the concept that can travel and tour in arenas that can accommodate circus trapeze acts and where no one will pay much attention to Daniel Ezralow and Chase Brock’s clunky grounded choreography. It’s only when he’s airborne that Spidey soars.

    So let’s cheer the many ovoid-headed, masked stuntmen who bring this show to life, even if their aerial rigging (heavy harnesses and thick wires) is fully visible – and it’s obvious that Reeve Carney a.k.a. Peter Parker clocks very little actual flying time as the titular webslinger.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Circle” (Westport Country Playhouse, summer 2011)

    Written by W. Somerset Maugham and set at an aristocratic estate in Dorset, England, in the 1920s, “The Circle” is a delightful drawing-room comedy of manners. Arnold Champion-Chesney (Mark Vietor) is a prim, uptight, ambitious member of Parliament, devoted to collecting antique furniture. Elizabeth (Gretchen Hall), his charming young wife of three years, is given to romantic notions. That’s why she’s invited Arnold’s estranged mother, Lady Catherine (Marsha Mason), to join them in the country for the weekend., hoping that they can become acquainted and regain some semblance of family.

    Thirty years ago –when Arnold was only five – Lady Catherine impetuously left Arnold’s father, Lord Clive (Paxton Whitehead) to run off to Italy to become the mistress of Lord Hugh Porteous (John Horton), and they’ve been living in exile ever since. Arnold has never forgiven her and he’s distressed  about the upcoming weekend, particularly when his father (Paxton Whitehead) unexpectedly arrives from Paris, just prior to the appearance of his mother and her longtime lover.  There are two additional houseguests:  athletic Edward ‘Teddy’ Luton (Bruce Pinkham), who manages a rubber plantation in the Federated Malay States, and amiable Mrs. Shenstone (Christina Rouner), who excels in bridge.

    Under discussion is the topic of infidelity and its destructive aftermath, particularly when it comes to living with the unforeseen consequences of one’s indiscretions.

    While Maugham wrote this many years ago, his witty, satiric, insightful observations about the status of women and their choices in life resonate today, particularly in affluent suburbia, where some women still define themselves as ‘wife of’ although they certainly have more financial flexibility  So, under the deft direction of Nicolas Martin, this dated comedy emerges as fresh and funny.

    While Paxton Whitehead, Marsha Mason and John Horton exude an effortless elegance, the younger members of the cast are given to posturing, obviously finding it difficult to relax while uttering the mannered language and moving about scenic designer Alexander Dodge’s luxurious set. And the women seem cursed by costumer Gabriel Berry’s unattractive and unflattering wardrobe choices.

    “The Circle” plays at the Westport Country Playhouse through Saturday, June 25. For more information and tickets, call 203-227-4177 or go to www.WestportPlayhouse.org

Susan Granger’s review of “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” (Richard Rodgers Theatre, 2011)

As Robin Williams paces back and forth in his battered cage, the first 20 minutes of Brooklyn playwright Rajiv Joseph’s dark dramedy crackles with energy and anticipation of danger. After all, the lions have escaped from their habitat, only to be gunned down as they roamed the streets. Then it happens. The grumpy, ill-fated Tiger is shot by one of the U.S. Marines guarding his cage. It all goes downhill and into the afterlife from there.

Making his Broadway acting debut as the Tiger, grizzled, gray-bearded Williams, dressed in khakis, laments, “I get so stupid when I get hungry.” He’s surly, savage and seriously subdued as the ghostly, foul-mouthed voice of philosophical reason, slyly commenting on the deadly cruelty that surrounds him, never resorting to the manic comedic shtick that made him famous.

The Tiger’s first caustic casualties are the two gung-ho soldiers assigned to patrol the Baghdad Zoo in 2003, shortly after the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Cocky Tom (Glenn Davis) and lame-brained Kev (Brad Fleisher) are intrigued by the gleaming, gold-plated pistol that Tom looted during a lethal raid on Saddam’s sons Qusay and Uday Hussein’s palace. But the coveted weapon ends up in the hands of the Hussein brothers’ former gardener, Musa (Arian Moayed), who now works as a military translator. Musa is haunted by sadistic Uday (Hrach Titizian, along with what happened to his sister, Hadia (Sheila Vand). Plus there’s the Husseins’ gold-plated toilet seat, which Tom also stole, winding up with a leper woman (Necar Zadegan). And so it goes, as the senseless, predatory violence continues to escalate.

Director Moises Kaufman, who guided the play through its world premiere at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, traverses the war zone carefully, handling Rajiv Joseph’s somber, episodic, Pulitzer Prize-nominated narrative with its heavy-handed, anti-war commentaries about how the alienation and aftershocks affect both soldiers and civilians. Derek McLane has designed a simple yet elegant set, amplified by David Lander’s lighting design and costumer David Zinn. While this bizarre psychological introspection is briefly provocative, it soon becomes tedious as its quirky appeal quickly palls, finding only the most tolerant audience members still in attendance for the curtain calls.

Susan Granger’s review of “Born Yesterday” (Cort Theater)

    Marilyn Monroe once said, “It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.”  I can’t vouch for Nina Arianda’s natural hair color, but she’s the most captivating and utterly delicious dumb blonde to grace the New York stage in many years in the revival of Garson Kanin’s sophisticated 1946 comedy.

    Arianda plays Billie Dawn, the ditsy, platinum-blonde girlfriend of an uncouth, unethical junk dealer, Harry Brock (Jim Belushi), who is visiting Washington, D.C. with big plans to wield influence in Congress. Billie’s a former “Anything Goes” chorus girl from New Jersey, and when it becomes obvious to Harry that her appalling ignorance is a social liability, he hires an idealistic New Republic journalist, Paul Verrall (Robert Sean Leonard), to educate her. Or, as he brusquely puts it: “to smarten ’er up a little,” so she won’t embarrass him as he wheels-and-deals with U.S. Senators.  Over an eight-week process of reading newspapers and American history books, Billie realizes how dishonest Harry is and begins to question the many documents Harry’s lawyer (Frank Wood) asks her to sign.

     I bring baggage to this production: my father (S. Sylvan Simon) produced the 1950 movie, starring Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford and William Holden. I remember being on the set as George Cukor directed the ‘gin rummy’ scene and stuffing a handkerchief in my mouth so I wouldn’t laugh out loud. That having been said, I found watching Nina Arianda and Jim Belushi hilarious. Exuding warmth and naiveté, Arianda is a natural comedienne with exquisite timing.  And, under the direction of Doug Hughes, Belushi is a superb foil, capturing the crass, dominating arrogance of Brock’s bellowing self-made millionaire. While Robert Sean Leonard looks the part and oozes sincerity, his ardor for Billie, unfortunately, never really comes across.

    What’s surprising is how timely and relevant Garson Kanin’s acerbic civics-and-citizenship script is today, given the deadlock in Congress as lobbyists push their special interests. And Harry Brock is not unlike the bankers and brokers who brought this country to the brink of financial ruin in recent years.

    John Lee Beatty’s luxurious hotel-suite set is perfectly ostentatious, while Catherine Zuber’s costumes are sheer eye candy.  I found “Born Yesterday” the most scintillating revival this season.

Susan Granger’s review of BEYOND THERAPY (Westport Country Playhouse)

    Back in 1981, when Christopher Durang’s bizarrely contemporary comedy opened off-Broadway, it was considered sharp and savvy, even shocking, as it explored the elusive romantic relationship between two Manhattanites, both of whom are under the care of psychiatrists.

    Having found each other through a ‘personal’ ad, they meet at a restaurant. Bruce (Jeremy Peter Johnson) is an impulsive, highly emotional bisexual, while uptight Prudence (Nicole Lowrance) is immediately judgmental. That dinner date is a disaster, as they report to their respective therapists: Prudence’s overtly  lecherous Stuart (Trent Dawson) and Bruce’s eccentric Charlotte (Kathleen McNenny), who stumbles over her words when she tries to express herself and uses a Snoopy dog to interact with her patients. Trying to be helpful, Charlotte suggests that Bruce place another, revised ad. As luck would have it, Prudence once again turns up as Bruce’s blind date at the same restaurant. This time, however, they make more of a connection and subsequently involve Bruce’s live-in boyfriend Bob (Stephen Wallem), along with Charlotte, Stuart and Andrew (Nick Gehlfuss), an elusive waiter.

    Unfortunately, what was frantic, even farcical, original fun 30 years ago seems dated, even quaint now.  Yet director David Kennedy has assembled a superb cast with a playful sense of comedic timing, and his entire production team is outstanding.  Indeed, Kennedy has done a far better job than writer/director Robert Altman, whose 1987 “Beyond Therapy” screen adaptation with Julie Haggerty, Jeff Goldblum and Glenda Jackson was an unmitigated disaster, both critically and commercially. And trivia buffs may be amused to discover that David Hyde Pierce made his Broadway debut as the waiter.

    Christopher Durang’s other plays include “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” “A History of the American Film,” “Laughing Wild,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” “Baby With the Bathwater” and “Wht Torture is Wrong and The People Who Love Them,” and his fans may well enjoy this early, absurdly satirical work, finding an amusing diversion as the Westport Country Playhouse begins its 80^th season. “Beyond Therapy” will be presented through May 14^th.

Susan Granger’s review of “Anything Goes” (Stephen Sondheim Theater)

    Climb aboard a luxury ocean liner and be sure to bring your dancing shoes for this cheery, easy-to-love revival of the Cole Porter classic, original written by P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse for Ethel Merman when it premiered in 1934, there was an updated book by Timothy Crouse (son of Russel) and John Weidman for Patti LuPone in the 1987 production at Lincoln Center.

    Sutton Foster embodies saucy, shimmying Reno Sweeney, a defiantly wisecracking evangelist-turned-nightclub singer who is embarking on an Atlantic crossing to England with fellow passengers like gangster Moonface Martin (Broadway veteran Joel Grey) and his  flirtatious moll Erma (Jessica Stone), Yale-obsessed Wall Street tycoon  Elisha Whitney (John McMartin), stowaway Billy Crocker (Colin Donnell), debutante Hope Harcourt (Laura Osnes), her mother Mrs. Evangeline Harcourt (Jessica Walter), and her fumbling British fiancé Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Adam Godley). And there’s a suspenseful comic riff as crew and passengers discover they’re trapped on the high seas with the FBI’s Public Enemy #1, much to the delight of the celebrity-craving captain (Walter Charles).

    Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall for the Roundabout Theater, it’s just de-lightful with unforgettable melodies and sophisticated lyrics,  like “Easy to Love,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “It’s De-lovely,”  the show-stopping “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” even into its sixth or seventh chorus,  along with the title song. As for plot, it’s a silly, screwball comedy that traces its roots back to vaudeville.

    Unlike either of her brassier predecessors – Sutton Foster is a trained dancer and she hoofs it with the best of ‘em atop Derek McLane’s three-tiered nautical set, highlighted by Martin Pakledinaz’s jaunty costumes. Perhaps Joel  Grey mugs a bit too much and Jessica Stone gets a bit too shrill, but it’s great good fun.

    And for those who enjoy showbiz trivia, apparently the musical got its title during a more-than-usually chaotic out-of-town tryout period, when William Gaxton, who was playing Billy Crocker, agreed to making an early entrance, quipping, “In this kind of spot, anything goes!”

    Designed to be pure entertainment, this revival of “Anything Goes” succeeds splendidly.