Flashing back to another May Day

Howdy, friends!  Boy, did I miss the boat on my Tony nomination ideas!  Wow.  I guess I need to get out there and see more shows.  I was looking at the list of all the shows that weren't nominated for anything - I've seen more of those than I have of the nominated shows.  Clearly, I have my finger on the pulse of the theatre community.  Not.  I'll do another post about the noms a little closer to the awards themselves.

I again went looking through old reviews, seeing if I could find something worthy of a 'flashback.'  I could hardly believe what came up when I did a search for posts that happened on a May 1...  A little backstory - I had some frequent flyer miles that were going to expire at the end of May, so I was struggling to figure out where I should go.  A friend of mine had her play chosen for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and one of my beautiful gal pals is starring in it!  I thought to myself, hmmm, I wonder if I have enough miles to get to Dublin?  AND I DID!!!  Plus, I only had to get a hotel room for one night since my pals will have an extra bed in their apartment after their show opens!  That's what I call serendipity, folks!  And that's how my little trip to Dublin next week came about.  I'll only be there for three full days, but hey, it's Dublin.  I've been frantically doing research, but have no idea what I'll be doing when I'm there.  Other than seeing my friend's show, of course.  I bought my tickets to two performances of the show and will try to catch one or two others in the festival.  I'm so excited about the trip, I can hardly stand it.

Coming back to this flashback post, I was rather shocked to see that a post I did on May 1, 2006, was about two Irish plays I had recently seen.  I mean, you can't make this stuff up!  Maybe I should do a screenshot of the e-mail so you don't think I'm making it up!  Ha ha.  And so, in honor of my trip to Ireland and in the spirit of flashing back, I present that post with two reviews.  Enjoy.  (I'm taking my tablet and hoping to get some posts out when I'm in Dublin, but we'll just have to play it by ear.  Rest assured you'll get a detailed report when I get back.)

MAY 1, 2006:  A weekend of Irish storytelling…ah, Broadway.  Anyway, one works like gangbusters and the other…not so much.  But maybe I'm just not "deep" enough to get it.

Faith Healer is just terrific.  Admittedly, it won't be everyone's cup of tea.  It's four monologues, given by a faith healer, his wife (or is she?) and his manager.  In sort of a Rashomon sort of way, they relate many of the same events, but of course they have different perspectives, different recollections, and different motives for telling their story their particular way.  And to me, this was fascinating.  You just never know what to believe, and I'm always interested in the 'what is truth' sort of argument.  Plus, how one person's life choices impact everyone and everything around him is a compelling subject, too. 

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

Ralph Fiennes could very well be the most beautiful creature on the planet.  Even though they've tried to make him look seedy and dissolute (and he does look rather haunted), you just can't unbeautify him.  He's just too gorgeous.  BUT it works for the character.  You want to hear what this man has to say.  You literally hang on his every word, not just because he's so compelling to look at, but because he speaks this gorgeous text so gorgeously!  (Gorgeous is apparently my word of the day)  Really wonderful work.  I literally couldn't breathe during the last part of his last speech.  And his hands…fascinating. 

Cherry Jones=fabulous.  As usual.  Spellbinding.  Accent came and went but so what?  Ian McDiarmid is truly wonderful as well.  He very well could have a Tony in his hands soon. (note from today: hey, I got one right!  what do you know?!)  He's funny and touching and smart and naïve…really great. 

Maybe the play worked so well because we were in the fifth row center.  Who knows?  But I loved every minute of it--the staging, the music, the props, the costumes.  Just smart storytelling, from top to bottom.

Shining City, on the other hand, didn't work as well for me.  Maybe it's because we were in the last row?  Again, who knows?  I thought the story was interesting.  I thought the actors were good.  I thought the set was nice.  But it didn't add up to a whole lot for me.   Maybe this is where the 'I'm not deep enough' kicks in. 

McPherson seems to be telling a story about finding your place in the world, but how these particular scenes tie into that, I just don't know.  I didn't hate the show, but I didn't particularly like it a lot, either.  It was nice to see Oliver Platt on stage.  He normally plays such oily characters, I liked seeing him play a normal sort of schlub.  His monologues were very well presented.  Brian O'Byrne is good, too, though he doesn't really drive the play, as I think his character should.  BUT, again, maybe that's the point.  I guess just too many threads are left dangling.

I liked Martha Plimpton.  She was solid in her only scene and made a very strong impression.  I haven't really liked her on screen before, so it was a nice surprise to enjoy her stage work.  I didn't really 'get' the spectral aspects and the climax just stymied me instead of scared me.

It's odd to say I liked so much of a play, yet really didn't like the play.  But it just seems too obtuse for its own good.  Too ambiguous.  Maybe I'm just used to watching 24 and need an action packed something.  No, that can't be the case.  Faith Healer is ambiguous in its own way, but it also has more of a point of view.  Whereas Shining City just sort of happens.  And then is over.  And you're not left with the fascinating sort of after-theater talk (like after I saw Doubt, for example) where you just want to dissect the play you've just seen.  You're just left with, "um, huh?"  At least I was.  Lots of people loved it, so...what do I know?!