Reviews - Boy and Disaster!

As you may or may not remember, I am a fan of playwright Anna Ziegler.  I know her a bit and I enjoy her writing.  I saw her play A Delicate Ship last year (review HERE) and really liked it.  When I saw that her new play, Boy, would be playing at the Clurman Theatre, I knew I wanted to pick up a ticket.  When I saw that Bobby Steggart would be starring in it, I really knew I wanted to pick up a ticket!  I'll get more into my fangirlthing for Bobby Steggart in a bit...

Boy is based on a true story about an infant boy whose circumcision was botched so a gender identity specialist convinced his parents to raise the boy as a girl, that nurture would conquer nature, and that this was the only course for the child to have a normal life.  The play itself begins in 1989, when we see an attractive young couple leave a loud Halloween party for a quieter spot to talk.  The young man begins by asking the young woman if he looks familiar to her (although he's wearing a mask) and so their flirtation begins.  The young man, Adam, seems eager to flirt with the young woman, but when she begins to respond and reciprocate, Adam ever-so-quietly backs off.  The next scene is in a doctor's office in the 1970s - the doctor is having a tape-recorded conversation with Samantha, a precocious six-year-old.  We then realize that Samantha is Adam, as a child, because Bobby Steggart plays both characters.

Scenes alternate throughout the play between Adam's youth as Samantha, and as an adult, struggling to have a relationship with a woman.  The scenes from the past are truly heartbreaking - the doctor is conversing with the child he considers to be a girl, yet the girl is having questions and problems she can barely articulate.  The doctor, who is more concerned with confirming his medical ideas than the good of his patient, seems to be as clueless as everyone else in the play about who they are and where they fit into the world.  In each scene, more and more is revealed, which means more and more is hidden, and the the two co-exist beautifully.  There are layers on top of layers, clues on top of clues and I loved it all.

I cried quite a lot throughout Boy.  The struggles of Adam were so real and, having the real-life case in the back of my head only heightened my sadness at what his life must have been like.  I have to admit that I did a little more research about the real-life subject and cried even more while reading about him.  But even during the play, I was so moved by the situations and characterizations and I think the playwright has beautifully articulated the divide between nature vs nurture.

photo credit: Carol Rosegg

All of the acting is strong, but really, Boy is Bobby Steggart's play.  He finds the balance between hope and despair, between male and female, between truth and fantasy, between understanding and ignorance.  It is truly a masterful performance - his body language is so telling and his shifts from the adult Adam to the child Samantha are breathtakingly smooth.  He creates a truly three-dimensional character who we care about, cry over and cheer when he finally confronts his past in a hopeful way.  But I guess I would've been predisposed to enjoy his performance - I'm a HUGE fan of his work.  I am truly starting to believe there's nothing he can't do.  Even in shows where he doesn't seem to be optimally cast (in my opinion), he is still strikingly original and honest in his portrayals.  

I highly recommend Boy - I think it tells a story that needs to be told, I think it's a story that's beautifully told, and I think that Bobby Steggart is giving a performance that must be seen and remembered.  The show is open at least a couple more weeks, so please go check it out.

Yesterday afternoon, my Tony-voter boss asked if I'd like to accompany him to the matinee of the new Broadway musical Disaster!  I thought, oh, why not?  I love everyone in the cast, I'm always up for a new musical, and one of my life guilty pleasures is to watch the disaster movies of the 1970s.  The Poseidon Adventure?  Airport?  The Towering Inferno?  LOVE THEM.  Oh, and I also love those craptastic pop songs of the 1970s.  So this show seemed to be in my wheelhouse, even though parody can quickly wear a little thin for me.

I had heard from a few people that the show was too long and a little too schticky, but I think I went in with an open mind.  I'm happy (and surprised) to report that my Tony-voter boss and I had a good time at the show.  Yes, it IS too long and it IS too schticky, but it also has really good performers having a really good time onstage, so that was pretty infectious.  And, come on, it had a disco ball and closed with a Barry Manilow song!  I mean, hello!

Disaster! is really ridiculously stupid, but rather smartly directed and cast.  The plot is of little to no importance, it's just a mashup and send-up of most of the disaster movies I've enjoyed in the past, this show taking place on a floating casino.  I laughed with a lot of "oh no they didn't!" subtext when they inserted a particular song into the proceedings ("Ben," in particular, cracked me up, as did "Three Times a Lady"), but a lot of the show is pretty clever. Plus, and here's some more fangirling, Adam Pascal is DREAMY. That dreaminess and his amazing singing carried me a long way.  I won't soon forget his "Without You" or "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight."  I mean, seeing him at the opening of the show in one of those disco polyester shirts, bell-bottomed jeans and hearing him sing "Hot Stuff"?  Grabbed my attention.  

The real MVP of the show, though, is Jennifer Simard as Sister Mary Downy, a nun with a guitar and a gambling addiction.  The sight of her pas de deux with a slot machine, while singing "Never Can Say Goodbye" was truly a riot.  As was her "Torn Between Two Lovers" (the lovers being Jesus and the slot machine, naturally).  She was sublime and I missed her in the second act (we see her less, unfortunately).  Oh, and Faith Prince?  Genius.  She was playing a Shelley-Winters-in-Poseidon-Adventure kind of character and she went for it. Watching her tap dance in morse code to save people who are trapped below? Hysterical.

photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

I think the show could be even better if it cut about twenty minutes - ten from each act. I did start to feel as if I had had enough, well before the first act and final curtain, because, sometimes more isn't always better, it's just more (to quote another guilty pleasure movie).  On the whole, I had a good time and smiled a lot through Disaster!.  The audience seemed to really enjoy it, too.  My seat neighbors on the right were particularly enjoying themselves, laughing heartily and repeating joke lines back to each other.  I'd say check it out if you share my enthusiasm for disaster movies, terrible ballads from the 70s, and Adam Pascal in bell-bottom jeans (and can get a discount)...