Rene Grayre Theatre reviews blog - René Grayre

The Other Plays: Short Plays About Diversity and Otherness

3/21/2017

Intelligent, Relevant, Thought-provoking, Well done but uneven, Ambitious

See it if
A disparate group of short plays, at times little more than extended scenes, fits your attention span. LaBute piece & Barnes solo stand out

Don't see it if
Quick dramatic sketches & ideas aren't enough. Though some have more potential, most are smart well presented scenes celebrating diversity.

A funny, quick-paced and clever evening of extremely short plays that explore the challenges presented by diversity and otherness in many of its forms, The Other Plays proves that in the end, actors are actors. Despite whatever physical disadvantages or challenges may exist, onstage the only disability that counts is a lack of acting ability.

But no problem here; though the range of experience onstage makes comparisons unfair and unevenness certain, there’s much joy here, much wit, and much to consider.

The Light Years

3/20/2017

Flat, Dull, Tedious, Disappointing, Ambitious

See it if
You have patience for a leaden show that has none of the awe, wonder & spectacle it tries to conjure & tie to hope, dreams, failure & time.

Don't see it if
You're wanting resolutions, least of all happy ones, in any of its three parallel narrative arcs of ambition, aspiration, hope and failure.

Browning's line about "reach exceeding grasp" applies not only to the central characters here, but as well to the collaborative team that devised its script.

The many interesting, myriad & serendipitous facts they’ve uncovered about time, stars, the world's fairs of the 19th & 20th Centuries, the aspirations & light that connect them all might, in other hands, have resulted in a theatrical moment that astonishes, the stuff of Stoppard or Sondheim, but here fall flat: collaborators too taken with the results of their research; what feels like a concept in search of a plot.

There aren't nearly enough sparkly lights to coax wonder out of this story of aspiring failure — though even inexpensive xmas lights over audience & house would have helped considerably. Delight's an ephemeral thing, but a nudge towards childhood can often whisk us back pretty quickly.

The cast does what it can with the material, while set & light design could have done with fewer props & more soaring imagination

The Penitent

3/11/2017

Banal, Flat, Predictable, Low key

See it if
You'd appreciate a stretched out writing exercise or a mostly advanced scene study class with third year directing/second year staging.

Don't see it if
You're expecting a fully realized play, sensible plot and dramatic structure or want to see vintage Mamet.

Short, with a creaky, sieve-like plot whose anemic machinations are obvious a mile away, The Penitent has all the earmarks of a graduate acting class: effective if basic lighting, ambient sound & minimal, actor-supplied props & scene changes.

Because it's a Mamet show, however, the most fascinating thing here, by far, is Rebecca Pidgeon—the actual Mrs Mamet—here confronted by Chris Bauer as an obvious Mamet stand-in, complete with Mamet glasses & beard.

Her voice has an interesting lilt, but her delivery is so incredibly stilted, so either very deliberate or inept, that it seems to speak volumes about her relationship with Mamet, at the same time serving to reveal and deconstruct the rhythm & form of the dialogue, its structure & technique; like being shown how a card trick is done.

Contrast that with Bauer and Laurence Gilliard Jr.’s smoothly-timed and seamless repartée in the best scene of the evening, or Bauer and Jordan Lage's conversational scenes, the difference is stark.

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT

3/10/2017

Refreshing, Thought-provoking, Great staging & acting, Clever, Ambitious

See it if
You know the Judas tale well & can deal with a 3 hour meditation on the consequences of love, choice & despair. Solid Act I, unfocused Act II.

Don't see it if
You neither care or know of Judas & Christ, or want clear resolutions to either the plot or arguments raised in this ingeniously framed drama.

Adly Guirgis has obviously done his biblical & historical homework, and as well knows his way around the afterlife. Set in an overworked Purgatorial courtroom, The Last Days takes up the case of Judas Iscariot: was his betrayal of Christ choice, chance, foreordained, or the inevitable result of a dehumanizing despair?

As Defense attorney & Prosecutor, DiDonna & Grimaldi are terrific, each methodically building their cases, calling witnesses across history, from Reynold's energetic & down St. Monica, Gantt's imposing Pontius Pilate & Molina's scarily charming Satan.

The writing is serious, funny, deft & moves surprisingly quickly, Estelle Parson's direction both tight & spare. With the cast very free, game & giving, Act I flies by. After its gospel/rap opening, however, Act II stalls, veers off into DiDonna's upsetting relationship with Satan and ends with an out-of-place, out-of-narrative, way-long perhaps improvised monologue that never resolves the play, its action or narrative. Lots of good here but needs work

Ring Twice for Miranda

3/9/2017

Predictable, Great singing, Indulgent, Clichéd, Quirky

See it if
You’re up for an affable, good looking mostly well acted but thin script that crosses Pinter and Beckett with an alt/indie song tossed in.

Don't see it if
”Should I stay or should I go” situations leave you anxious or bored, or if you prefer your possible apocalyptic futures clearly resolved.

Good lighting & sound design, a minimal set & and an attractive, engaging lead actress aren’t enough to compensate for a pretty lean situational melodrama that never really develops past the scene study stage, deliberately coy and contrary.

The long table, old-fashioned wall of servant’s bells & dramatic lighting at rise, combined with the four-poster-looking set place us “below stairs,” and visually, what feels like “below bed.” Add in the formally dressed maid & butler, & the immediate thought is British manor house — an idea snapped away as soon as the actors start speaking American: we are displaced.

Indecision & despair run rampant below stairs & in the outside world, all very much Beckett, while upstairs with Sir, the tension, talk and mental games are pure Pinter. It's an interesting contrast, but Husk's script never reaches any narrative or philosophical bite. Katie Kleiger breathes life into Miranda; but her climactic song inaudible, we're left hanging.

Linda

3/5/2017

Disappointing, Relevant, Engaging, Great set, Great acting

See it if
A dynamite lead & good performances are enough to make up for an unevenly directed & thematically overwritten script that reverses itself.

Don't see it if
You want to see female empowerment & self-determination rewarded, or a pertinent, important subject resolved in any meaningful way.

As a production, Linda looks as good, sharp, attractive & dynamic as its leading lady, the terrific Janie Dee. The modern contemporary set on its revolving stage is used well, smoothly changing locations & time; costumes are attractive, doing double thematic duty; lighting & sound are great.

Ms Skinner's script, however, despite its snappy, quick paced dialogue fails rather spectacularly and strangely; its second act renounces its first in a burst of melodrama, & goes out of its way at the end to rebuff its own main premise — twice. A tight Act I that speaks directly to & for a very wide range of women's rights & issues, tells us at the end that nothing has changed. A strange position coming from a woman in 2017.

Ms. Dee goes all out for it but can't overcome the character's sudden & immediate breakdown — a false, jolting note in the character & in the narrative line. Jennifer Ikeda fares better as the troubled daughter, acting out the invisibility mentioned in the opening speech, making the skunk suit she wears that makes it possible convincing.

Come Back, Little Sheba

2/26/2017

See it if
You're up for a well-acted period piece set in one of the most awkward, passive-aggressive stagings in memory, audience literally boxed in.

Don't see it if
Tragedy and Regret, obvious metaphor, unrelenting melodrama and/or a realistic alcoholic episode and crash are more than you can bear.

The Gym at Judson can be a difficult space, and Inge's dusty classic packs more metaphors than a litter of pups, yet even so director Cummings feels the need to pile on yet one more physical metaphor on his audience. Seated 3-rows deep around a playing area the size of an actual railroad apartment, small dividing walls split the audience into sections and from each other, markers for the alienation and loneliness soon to come. Some sections for the most part almost always a room away from the actors, the blocked sight lines ensure that someone's always missing something — especially that fatal fifth of whiskey, and with it, a lot of suspense.

Still, the actors are game and committed, trying and for the most part avoiding the script's inherent clichés. Patterson's Turk manages to add dimension to what otherwise might just be a pretty part, McRae's Lola is dutifully forlorn and believable, and though Kolonski mugs a bit as Doc, his work at the end is startling enough to make it work.

The Bride

2/24/2017

See it if
You'd like to experience a young, talented & very likeable cast convincingly (almost) meld 2 Shakespearean plays with great humor & music.

Don't see it if
You're a purist, not liking your Shakespeare reimagined, shuffled or musicalized in any way; don't like sparkly lights or theatrical magic.

Especially in times like these, it's gratifying to see young eyes & energy diving so into the text & timelessness of Shakespeare. It's an almost visceral thing, watching & feeling their joy as they nightly discover & convey the truths in their characters & text. A blend or weave of two disparate plays, it's a theatrical experiment, in some ways not unlike the sometimes cut & paste efforts of the Shakespeares, Marlowes & Beaumonts that have come down to us now as classics.

Conceptually & visually inventive, with the cast playing music throughout in songs, sounds & effects, rhythms & spoken iambs, the direction is smooth & seamless with a terrific use of ever-changing space, props & instruments.

In a very strong ensemble, Katie Fanning's Rosaline stands out as does Allyson Capetta's Verges, & their stunning, transporting solo harmony virtually stops the show. Nat Angstrom's textual weave could use a little tightening for clarity, but it's a fine, fun evening, time well spent with this quick-witted cast.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

2/19/2017

Slow, Verbose, Histrionic, Ultimately excruciating, Inaudible

See it if
You're up for a show with high self-conscious intellectual aspirations that devolve into logorrheic melodrama, misdirected and unclear.

Don't see it if
You'd prefer a show held up by more than a silent maid and an iguana, unfortunately the clearest, most layered & effective elements onstage.

In spite of an unforgivably inaudible exposition, Bitter Tears begins well enough; Gombé convinces & commands as Petra, & Alex Spieth's silent Marlene is from the start & throughout the clearest, solid backbone of this show.

All other characters however lack depth & clear motivations; we are throughout being told not shown, and without frisson or sexual tension, all is nonsense. Petra's transition from seduction to love to madness is instantaneous & unbelievable, & Gombé, given the thankless task of wailing for 20 minutes, is wasted & even more unbelievable.

As is much onstage, except for the unexpected, very real & honest iguana, the perfect metaphor for Petra: trapped, still, prehistoric, wrapped in a pretty bow, completely alone — & on a stage, a total throwaway.

In the end, this production all comes off as a rather macho intellectual exercise. One suspects this show would best have been directed by a woman, to plumb the complicated depths of emotion, desire, rejection & power.

In Transit

2/17/2017

Entertaining, Relevant, Tight, Clichéd, Sweet

See it if
You like harmonies; a light, bouncy, friendly and slightly weird entertainment, solidly performed; New York; or if you work for the MTA.

Don't see it if
You're repelled by novelty, the subway system or the all too familiar downsides of living in NYC.

One can only wonder at the elevator pitch for this show and the leap of faith that produced it, but the result if nothing else is a solidly conceived and performed vehicle that entertains and moves audiences.

The capable and effective cast execute intricate choreography and vocals with inspiring ease, playing every familiar, uncomfortably true, right-on-the-money living-in-NYC cliché unabashedly, presented with smiles and a bow. A likable, eager ensemble, each gets their moment to shine.

Somehow, audiences identify closely with these characters: the ooh at the near-kiss, the spontaneous applause when the ingénue gets the part or the gay couple wed. A diverse and into it audience, this is how a culture gets changed, one song, one laugh at a time.

However polished, an a cappella musical may not be for everyone — this one takes several numbers to connect and win over, but the huge Standing O and roar of the crowd at curtain are undeniable, proof at least they're doing something right.