Rene Grayre Theatre reviews blog - René Grayre

Miss Julie (Matthew Corozine Studio)

9/24/2016

Flat, Original casting, Inaudible actors, Slow, Ambitious

See it if You'd like to see Lucas's take on Strindberg, support live theatre & support young actors as they develop their technique in a small venue.

Don't see it if Hearing dialogue is a concern; even in the 4th row of a tiny studio, actors are rendered invisible by poor vocal projection/presence.

Lack of vocal projection & the technique that makes it possible is a widespread problem in today's theatre, & this production's a good example.

Gabby Aris, a young actor in her directorial debut, has made some interesting choices—which might have worked if everyone could be clearly heard all the time; but without guidance or amplification, all faded in & out in a quiet buzz, causing the narrative, plot & emotional arcs to wander.

The actor's basic tool is her or his body; the full command of it, physical & vocal, is what everything—motivations, presence—is built on & made possible by. Microphones are a useful tool, but their use shouldn't be depended on or assumed. An audience should be able to hear what's goin on, especially in a small space; & just because a space is small, it shouldn't be assumed that the actors can be heard.

There was a time when actors could pull off a "stage whisper" unassisted. It may never come up, but a good skill to have; Patrick Stewart, anyone?

Dementia Americana

9/21/2016

Original, Clever, Delightful, Great acting, writing, direction, Quirky

See it if:
you're ready for a cure for all the bad theatre you might've been seeing lately; delightful performances & timely script tightly presented.
Don't see it if:
you're easily confused by imaginative narrative or staging, have no interest in history or current events or in innovative theatre.

A great evening of theatre, with great humor and subtle wit suffusing the entire production. Sparking performances by a wonderful cast and crisp direction pull off the imaginative script, a fresh take on the tragic Stanford White, Evelyn Nesbit and Harry K. Thaw triangle.

Tongue in cheek staging often crosses the fourth wall into the contemporary present, as do the characters, and humor catches as the timeless aspects of deviance and violent abuse kick in seamlessly.

In a welcome surprise, the actors wonderfully manage to achieve something pretty rare on stage: very evenly matched, very honest & wry performances across the board; a very solid ensemble.

The ending, however, might have been tighter, bringing home the points of money & celebrity entitlement more sharply to our present—a problem perhaps fixed by a small adjustment in the staging—but this is a minor complaint.

In all, Dementia Americana is a terrific evening that shouldn't be missed. And all deserve to be AE by now.

Edward Albee 1928 - 2016

9/20/2016

I first met Edward Albee in 1990. I was running the Philippe Staib Gallery in Soho and was giving sculptor Zero Higashida his first solo show in New York. Albee knew him, so I cold-called to ask if he'd write something for my catalogue. He answered the phone himself and then shocked me by actually saying yes.

I arranged a studio visit and a car to take us out to Brooklyn. We sat together in one of the longest drives I've ever had. Albee was, like his plays, concise and crisp in his conversation; and reserved. And I — well, after all, what does one say to Edward Albee on first meeting? "Nice plays,"? "Love that Martha"? I don't think so.

Everything went well and he wrote a lovely short essay which I published, and which Albee, apparently never one to waste anything, included in his collection of essays in 2005. I ran into Mr. Albee often over the years, and in 2011 was planning a project between the two of them that sadly never materialized. Instead, Zero produced a series of sculptures that were to be a "Spiritual Portrait of Edward Albee" and were shown at the Kouros Gallery.

At the end of the first sitting, Mr. Albee obliged us by giving his thoughts on World Peace (for yet another project), the content of the quick video excerpt here. One of the last times I saw Mr. Albee I began to compliment his terrific Play About the Baby when he stopped me to ask if I'd seen his The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? which was then running. Looking directly at me, he said "Well. You must see it; it's an important play." It was and is — as he was and will forever be; thank you, Edward Albee, for everything.

The Vanity

9/18/2016

remarkably bad, confused, unrelenting,excruciating
disappointing

See it: if you need to see the most aptly titled piece of theatre you'll likely ever see.

Don’t see it if: Just don’t.

It's very rare to find a production or piece of theatre so thoroughly wrong that it has nothing to recommend it; not a moment or performance or bit of business that can justify enduring the time spent to get to it.

It's unfortunate because jobs are involved and at stake and, though the final result would seem to belie the fact, a lot of creative energy was spent and a great amount of thought — however misguided — went into it as well.

Dismissing a show like The Vanity is all too easy, and since the jibes and sarcasms just pour out and write themselves, a little restraint at least allows the questions of “why,” and then of course “how”; varying abilities aside, it’s too simple and unfair to simply blame the actors.

The biggest question might be: How was this production allowed to get so far? Why did/could no one edit the triple threat (yes, pun intended) writer/composer? The material seems to have been written in stone in some isolated, self-satisfied closet. How and why was it financed and backed?

In a show where the only successful moment (and character) was the welcoming opening announcement, and in an industry whose business model is precarious at best, this stuff matters. There’s a lot of good material out there struggling to get financing, and projects like the vain Vanity can eat away at audience support which, production costs pushing ticket prices higher than ever before, is something — tourists aside — the theatre badly needs to maintain.

September 18, 2016

How to be An American

9/17/2016

Great acting, Thought-provoking, Relevant, Intelligent, Clever

See it if The 2016 election has importance. An entertaining, intelligent, slyly relevant, well executed & performed reveal of our present thru our New York City past.
Don't see it if You don't like politics, history, electioneering (past or present) or well-executed and performed political campaign songs from the 1900's.

Slight of hand time travel sets up an easing into the gentlest bit of participatory theatre which makes the audience a fifth, very present, active and at times eager character. And in some ways, the most important.

There, in 1905, as immigrants herded into a Tammany Hall wigwam, a shiny American Dream success promised in exchange for a vote for, and participation in, a system of unsuspected corruption and greed; here in 2016, to be educated and reminded that not much has changed in the years since in our politics except, perhaps, the art of the deal.

The actors, still on book for this short run, are excellent, inhabiting their roles with deceptive ease & charming credibility — and great musicality, breathing life into the period songs with great vocal arrangements and harmonies.

The direction was both tight & fluid, a delicate, successful balance encouraging an apt spontaneity. Lastly a quiet authority in the script, based on actual campaign speeches, subtly draws all into the present.

Missed Connections

9/16/2016

Funny, Clever, Intelligent, Quirky, Terrific cast

See it if In the mood for a tight, urbane witty & clever musical meditation on modern life wonderfully performed by a versatile & multitalented cast.

Don't see it if You need a plot; or big storied musicals with drama sentiment or schmaltz; or revivals.Or if you're ignorant of or simply dislike Craigslist

The Marvelous Wonderettes

9/16/2016

Campy, Fun, Endearing, Cliched, Entertaining

See it if You love Doo Wop & 50's music. A fun, campy evening of 50's song & dance well performed by four disparate, energetic & very talented women.

Don't see it if You hate camp, 50's music, Girl Groups or tight, stop on a dime harmonies and predictable if entertaining plots in this well-directed romp.

While the vocal arrangements were fine, the sound could have been better engineered and much cleaner. Clever choreography moved the action along well, and the costumes and wigs in the first act fully realized the era, as did the evening's strongest number, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, which closed Act I.

Act II, the 10 year reunion, seemed less well thought out and could have been assembled by a different team; not nearly as tight, sloppier costumes, fewer harmonies and more an individual showcases for each performer. Still, a fun and entertaining if predictable evening well presented and performed.

— September 19, 2016

Trip of Love — an Assessment: September, 2016

9/15/2016

Trip of Love, the spectacular little show that could and did, ended its house-breaking run at Stage 42 with its Sunday matinée on August 7th, 2016, a bittersweet tour de force that provided that rarest of things — a sharp and exciting, emotionally packed and perfectly executed moment of musical theatre that will long be remembered by everyone lucky enough to have been there.

This incomprehensibly underrated show, directed, choreographed and co-designed by James Walkski, was an intense and deeply well-researched labor of love, and of hard and committed labor by everyone involved. With sumptuous, handcrafted, detailed costumes by Gregg Barnes, and disarmingly fresh, intricate and exciting musical arrangements by Martyn Axe, flawlessly performed by a kick-ass pit band of six, Trip of Love was also an oddity that defied easy classification or definition.

Essentially a dance show with amazing singers that could actually dance, Trip of Love was ultimately done in by a glib, mean-spirited, ultimately lazy opening night New York Times review, as well as by an ad campaign that never quite knew what it was selling or how to communicate its quality or fun to an American audience.

Originally mounted and produced in Osaka by Makoto Deguchi, who also produced the profitable and long-running Blue Man Group in New York, Trip of Love was created in Japan for a Japanese audience with many members of the current American cast in what was essentially a tribute to 1960's American culture, music and style — but seen through Japanese eyes, an important distinction.

This Japanese quality was obvious in a wealth of details — the arguably odd song selections and their order, the gorgeous costumes with their clever variations of kimono, the modern and sexy update of a Noh Theatre Taiko Lion Dance performed by the female ensemble, the recurring stylized disco TV setup so reminiscent of local Japanese television, to name a few.

Although most audiences were on their feet by evening’s end, not embracing or sharing any of this background simply confused and alienated others. Many arrived expecting a story-driven Mamma Mia, School of Rock or Kinky Boots, but left irritated at having witnessed instead a plotless Jerome Robbins' Broadway or a Bob Fosse’s Dancin' — shows with great choreography and virtuoso ensemble performances, shows Trip had much more in common with.

The television ad campaign in particular stressed and highlighted the songs — an impressive list to the brand-obsessed Japanese, but meaningless and off-putting to a New York audience — and the ad copy, mostly lifted from the program's notes describing the '60's as "a time when innocence was lost" or inviting "a trip back to the 60’s," did little to entice audiences or adequately describe the real and unique miracle of this production — namely the tremendous talent working their collective asses off nightly onstage. Bar (or perhaps "barre") set high from the beginning, this cast exceeded that standard time and again, incredibly becoming even better and tighter during the course of the run.

This last can’t be described adequately or stressed enough, but the real and enduring truth and success of Trip of Love was its cast of young, extremely talented and gorgeous dancers and singers in absolutely top form, in their prime, fueled on by the obvious joy of night after night realizing a wide range of incredibly difficult, complicated, tricky and fun choreography, material and vocal arrangements, and sharing that joy with audiences and each other.

Ensemble theatre at its best, the entire cast was always in sync, always fully committed, no egos in sight, tightly working together, everyone always performing full-out with a sharp sparkling energy regardless of audience or attendance. No stars onstage, but all stars, each and every one of them.

All of which makes this closing so sad and unfortunate. Trip of Love, like Blue Man Group or even Mummenschantz — both shows that were always and obviously different and “other” — is a show that could and should have run forever, particularly in its 42nd Street location. It’s a pity that the intelligence and wit that went into the substance and art of the production was never matched by its marketing, an unfortunate failure of imagination.

Emotions ran high in Trip’s final performance. The ensemble’s Wipeout was met with a tremendously extended and well-deserved ovation that stopped the show, and the final moments of Moon River, California Dreamin’ and If You Go Away were especially poignant, the finality of the afternoon seeming to kick in for cast and audience.

Beloved R&B star Darlene Love, who was booked for the last four performances, belted out effective if under-rehearsed vocals, and Nia Sioux, late of cable TV’s Dance Moms and inserted into the ensemble for the show’s last weeks, managed to at least keep up with a cheerful energy. In the end, though, both were odd and unnecessary additions to a show that had always been balanced by its strong, even casting and ensemble work.

Austin Miller, Joey Calveri and David Elder as usual delivered the solid, soaring vocals that so often stopped the show; Bahiyah Hibah was coy and playful as always; Tara Palsha Moats, with her traffic-stopping looks, her welcoming warmth, smile and tremendous voice that just got better and stronger, was completely off the charts that afternoon; Yesenia Ayala was again languorous and beautiful as ever in her last Ipanema samba, and Ashley Fitzgerald Kelly’s sharp and remarkable dancing was strong and interesting as ever.

Finally, Kelly Fulthous, as always relentlessly charming and game, whose unstoppable energy, smile, wit and huge voice were the driving force of every performance, was once again the soul and center of this Trip of Love.

It will be missed.

The Tempest - Torn Out Theatre

9/10/2016

Just caught — and can highly recommend — the Torn Out Theatre's all-female — and yes, all nude — version of The Tempest, playing its last show today at the Music Pagoda in Prospect Park.

The nudity is quickly incidental, and actually fits in very well with the plot, but the most liberating thing about this production is Shakespeare literally stripped down to nothing but the word, the power and timelessness, timeliness of the verse.

The glade setting in the park is perfect, as are the terrific actors and dancers, who also and amazingly manage to project vocally without amplification in the open space, and can be heard easily— a rarity these days, even in miked and over-amplified theatres.

Catch them if you can, or next time around.

House of the Setting Sun (Dream up)

9/2/2016

Ambitious yet clichéd, Inaudible, Strangely compelling

See it if Patience & ears allow enduring a well-acted yet poorly sung by non-singers inaudible-at-10-feet production with potential &interesting score
Don't see it if Plot matters: game non-singers in over their heads keeping up with a complicated score results in an incomprehensible storyline and ending.

Casting House of the Setting Sun with decent actors that can't really sing in a production that is all singing is unfair to all concerned—composers, actors &material, making it difficult to really judge the evening fairly.

With a strong premise & visuals, it’s decently directed, but inaudible actors—a pervasive issue these days—caused much of the plot & action to be incomprehensible, notably the ending.

The uneven score, understandable with 5 composers, ranges from lovely, textured chamber melodies to Broadway bombast & clichés, the lyrics following the same curve. Orchestrations were lush though scored only for violin & piano.

Light cues need to be realized, songs cut & costumes to at least try to get near 1927—the young couple looked as if they just got off the Hamptons jitney.

Still, the project has something, & real commercial possibilities. Although this production unfortunately can’t really be recommended, it’ll be interesting to see how this show develops. It definitely should.