Last night, I went to the first preview of John Patrick Shanley's new play,
Prodigal Son. It's being done at Manhattan Theatre Club's Off-Broadway space. I generally enjoy Shanley's plays, and his screenplays, very much.
Moonstruck is brilliant, in my opinion. I think he writes amazingly authentic dialogue, his characters are always individuals, and his storytelling skills are outstanding. I normally don't go to first previews, but when a steeply discounted ticket fell into my lap, I decided to risk it. But since it WAS a first preview of a new play, I'm sure they're still working, so I'll only say a few things.
Prodigal Son tells the story of a "seventeen-year-old boy from The Bronx who finds himself suddenly in a private school in New Hampshire. He’s violent, gifted, alienated, on fire with a ferocious loneliness. Two faculty members wrestle with the dilemma: Is the kid a star or a disaster?" (I took the quotation from the theater's website) I enjoyed this story very much - having a teenaged nephew makes me, I think, more likely to get involved in a coming-of-age story about a young boy. Having the story told so well only made it better.
The last play of Shanley's I saw,
Outside Mullingar, had a scene in it that I think is one of the best scenes in contemporary American theater. I think
Prodigal Son has a scene I can say that about, too. The first scene, where we see the boy and the headmaster size each other up, was just brilliant. And it was beautifully acted. The whole show was beautifully acted, but the young boy, Timothee Chalamet, deserves special mention. He carries the show on his shoulders and he was fantastic. Quirky, smart, self-destructive, funny, needy - he played so many layers in this troubled kid, and he did it all with a sparkle in his eye and a spring in his step. You could see why people wanted to save him.
I also want to mention Robert Sean Leonard, who I've been a big fan of for years and years. He had just left Fordham when I started teaching there, so our paths didn't cross, unfortunately, but I've always enjoyed his work. He's just so real and immediately recognizable. He was terrific as the teacher who wants to mentor this boy, but struggles to understand him. I would love to see Leonard on stage more - I have such fond memories of his Tony-winning turn in
Invention of Love, and I thought he was incredible in the revival of
Long Day's Journey into Night. Let's hope that now his tv show is over, he'll do more stage work because he's quite special.
When I looked in the program after the show to see who had done the musical score, I was shocked to see the composer was Paul Simon! I didn't think he would ever do theater music again! His score here was very nice, quite evocative and interesting. Not too intrusive but always setting the mood. I liked it. I hope he does more of this kind of thing. I don't really want to say too much more about the production, other than there were a few things that didn't make sense to me, some directorial choices that seemed odd and I think the pacing was off, but that's most likely because it was a first preview. I have no doubt that things will come together beautifully by the time the show opens. There is some ravishingly beautiful stuff in here and I wept several times. That's always a good sign for me. Plus, as soon as it was over, I was wanting to go back. So that's a good sign, too. They do have some work to do, but I have faith they'll get to where they need to be...
The little bit extra is about my excursion Monday night - I don't know what I was thinking, telling an old friend I'd go to a movie with her. I had the day off from work! I really just wanted to lay on my couch and watch tennis for the three day weekend! Especially since it has gotten so cold. But I did begrudgingly leave my apartment and went to see the 'live' broadcast of Kenneth Branagh's theater company's production of
The Winter's Tale, starring Branagh and Judi Dench. I thought it was terrific, and if another broadcast comes your way, you should go see it.
The Winter's Tale is one of the toughest Shakespeare plays to pull off because it has so many contradictory forces in it, but when you get the tone right, it can be a beautiful story of redemption, self-discovery and love. I think Branagh's company mainly gets it right. Branagh is quite mercurial as Leontes and he makes us believe his sudden jealousy and suspicion with body language and gorgeous text work. I enjoyed his rapport with his friend Polixenes, but I also intuited a subliminal problem between them that added greatly to the trouble that comes later. Hadley Fraser was very good as Polixenes, who fell into some of the same traps as his jealous friend later in the play. But really, the whole reason to see this is Judi Dench. She is, quite simply, sublime as Paulina. She finds the humor, the humanity, the sympathy and the rage in every line. She also has the monologue about Time that comes late in the play and she delivered it exquisitely. She was really a marvel. And I think anytime you have the chance to see Judi Dench do...well, anything really, you should take it!
No comments:
Post a Comment