Reviews and other ramblings

I love living in New York.  I can see theater any time I want, which is generally all the time.  If I had the energy (and the money), I would see something every night.  A few years ago, a gent in my office was an award nominator, so he got tickets to everything and would frequently invite me to join him.  It was great to see so much, and I decided I wanted to share my impressions with my friends.  Thus my Review e-chain was born.  Originally it went out to five or six people, but it's grown over the years to over 30 people.  So--even though I don't see as much as I used to, I thought I'd put some reviews on the blog.  As a rule, I don't review things done by my closest friends (no perspective) and I won't share my negative impressions of shows written by people I may happen to work for (no courage).  But, rules are made to be broken, yes?  Here we go...

I was fortunate enough to score a TDF ticket for Arcadia on Tuesday night and had a friend take me to Sister Act last night.  I have to say I enjoyed both evenings immensely.

I’ve never seen a production of Arcadia and freely admit I haven’t read it in years.  So I went into the show relatively ‘blind’ and loved it.  I guess I am predisposed to love a Stoppard play (Rock and Roll and Coast of Utopia are both WAY up on my favorite recent productions list) and wasn’t disappointed this time.  Although all of the acting wasn’t spot on, I was completely engaged throughout the three-hour run time and found the final images haunting.

photo credit: Carol Rosegg

I’ve heard from several people who saw the original NY production that this one suffered from its casting, so I’m kinda glad I didn’t have that baggage going in.  I will say that the gal playing Thomasina takes some getting used to.  She’s so odd and affected, it’s as if she’s doing some sort of acting student caricature with her accent (which is odd, since she’s actually a Brit), but ultimately she worked for me because her character is so contradictory and unknowable, her complete ‘rough around the edges’ persona made sense.  And it helped the movement of her relationship with Septimus, played by Tom Riley.  I thought he was terrific—smart and funny, charming, knowing, yet totally naïve.  Plus, well, he’s adorable.  Never hurts.  Billy Crudup is teetering on the edge of overplaying in his performance, but he really worked for me, too.  You really saw the grasping and the climbing of this guy, who just wants to get famous, and doesn’t really care how.  He tries to have a meeting of the minds with Lia Williams’ character, but can’t quite take that final step (well, she has something to do with that, too, but…).  In fact, a lot of the show is how people just can’t seem to go that extra step to get what they want for their heart, but they will blindly go for miles to get what they want for their brain.  Interesting ideas.  Of course I loved my crush, Raul Esparza.  Talk about not being able to go after what you want.  Margaret Colin was terrific as the lady of the manor and Lia Williams was heartbreaking as Hannah.  I do think the direction is a little stately and sterile.  I could’ve used a tad more oomph to up the emotional quotient to match the intellectual quotient, but I loved the script enough that I could live with the inequity.  Maybe on repeat viewings, I would get resentful.  I don’t know.  I’m thinking of getting another TDF ticket, so I’ll keep you posted. 

I went into Sister Act last night with next-to-no expectations.  I like the movie, but wondered how an original score would fit into the story.  For the most part, I thought the score was terrific.  They have moved the setting to the 70s, so a lot of the songs now have a disco beat.  I did think some of the songs sounded a lot alike, especially the stuff done by the ‘bad guys.’  And one of the songs sounds an awful lot like Dreamgirls, but there was enough good music to make up for the not-as-good.  The stuff sung by the nuns is terrific, especially their first number "Raise Your Voice."  I thought the music, lyrics and performances came together smashingly in that one.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Patina Miller as Deloris was excellent, though I will say maybe she was the tiniest bit underwhelming last night. She was off-stage for extended scenes and I didn’t really miss her, even though the story is ostensibly about her.  Now Victoria Clark, on the other hand, IS a star.  You can’t take your eyes off her and she completely rocks her scene work (of course she rocks her songs, too, I mean hello, she’s Victoria Clark).  She’s great.  I really loved Fred Applegate as the priest, and Chester Gregory as the cop who has a crush on Deloris.  His big number has some riotous directorial choices in it, so thumbs up for that.  Jerry Zaks directed, which in a way didn’t surprise me, because there were some clunky directorial choices in the first act, but then did surprise me in the second act, because there was some fun stuff, too.  So…there you have it.  J    Oh, and there’s a disco ball Virgin Mary—gotta love that.  All in all, I had a lot of fun at the show and the rest of the audience seemed to be loving it.  I’ll be interested in how the reviews for this one plays out.

As to the other ramblings mentioned in the post title, one of my other passions is tennis.  I've watched for years (Bjorn Borg was an early crush), but became more fanatical about it after a sunny day in June 2001, when I saw Roger Federer for the first time.  I was at my parents' house, watching Wimbledon on the little tv in their kitchen, cheering as Federer played an amazing match to beat Pete Sampras.  I was in love.  And have been in love with Roger ever since.  During his amazing run as #1, I watched him religiously and got SO MAD whenever he lost (which wasn't often).  I mean, MAD.  Like, don't talk to me today, I'm too mad.  He spoiled me by winning so much.  Well, fast-forward to ten years later, and I watched him lose this morning.  And I didn't get mad.  I was sad, yet vaguely pleased for Jurgen Melzer, the opponent who had never beaten Roger before.  So...what does that mean?  Have I mellowed (doubtful)?  Am I accepting the inevitable (NOOOOO!)?  I will love Roger forever, but do I need a new tennis passion?  Maybe this will require further thought and another post.  To quote one of my favorite musicals: is.a.puzzlement.