Thoughts on Hamlet, Present Laughter and Pacific Overtures

That's a pretty wide range of titles in that headline, right?  I've been out and about lately, catching on a few things during this busy theater season.  I have a few more shows coming up, thanks to generous Tony-voter friends, and, hello, BALLET SEASON STARTS NEXT WEEK. I can feel my will to live slowly returning...

I am a big fan of Arian Moayed, I thought he was magnificent in Bengal Tiger, superb in King Lear, and I was devastated to miss him in The Humans.  When I saw that he would be doing a production of Hamlet downtown, I immediately pounced.  I was supposed to see the show last Thursday, but work beckoned.  The theater was nice enough to exchange my ticket for Saturday's matinee.  As it was only the third or fourth preview, I'll only offer a few thoughts.

This particular version is set in Persia, using Shakespeare's story to throw a light on all societies torn apart.  I thought the use of the Farsi language, in certain circumstances, was excellent.  The show is brilliantly staged - the space is very tiny, but it is used beautifully.  The designs are excellent, except for, god help me, the shoes.  I don't know why the shoes struck me so hard, but they did.  Ew.  The acting ranges from the very good to the not so very good, but I will consider that something that can be worked through during previews.  It seemed to me that some actors have an idea where their character will finish the play, and are still working through their journey.  That's ok.  Everyone mainly told the story quite well and I enjoyed myself.  I'd be happy to go back and see how things have grown over the run.  The theater only seats about 50, so I'd suggest you get your reservations set now, to make sure you can get into the theater.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

I recently returned to Present Laughter, starring the irresistible Kevin Kline.  You may recall I lucked into a ticket to the first preview and enjoyed myself, while noting that the pacing of the show was a tad slow, and the dialogue was maybe a little hard to hear. Well, last week's performance was on fire!  They were making me laugh at a great clip, and it was the perfect show to see to raise the spirits during a long long week.  Kline is so expert at physical comedy, but he also captures the ruefulness that hides under the always-onstage-veneer. His line readings are a riot, his double takes sublime and the tender moments, few though they are, are completely touching.  I found him absolutely charming, as did all of the other characters in the play.  Really, everyone just seemed to be having a grand time up there, so we in the audience did, too. I was a tad surprised that everyone has been miked, but I recall that during the preview process, a lot of people complained they were having trouble hearing (I had some issues myself).  I was also a tad surprised that our seats, originally intended to be in the last row of the mezzanine, were moved to closer to the front of the mezzanine.  I'm sorry the show isn't selling - it IS a rather long play, but they've done their level best to keep things moving, without making it seem like they all have planes to catch afterwards.  All I know is I had a grand time and I hope Kevin Kline wins all the awards.

I also caught the final preview of Pacific Overtures at Classic Stage Company.  If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I love the entire Sondheim/Weidman oeuvre, and I especially love Pacific Overtures.  I saw the Roundabout revival several times and I've been known to binge watch the old YouTube videos of the original production.  I think it's a gorgeous show and I will see it anytime, anywhere.  I will admit that I had some trepidation about this production, because of its director.  I've also been on record on not really enjoying this particular director's aesthetic.  All I'll say is that I again didn't enjoy several aspects of the director's vision, but I loved being in the room with those wonderful performers and the performance of "Someone in a Tree" was simply sublime; it brought tears to my eyes and made the night worthwhile.  Although...

I have an annoying seat neighbor story to share.  It was so annoying that it may have affected my perception of the performance:  I've been to CSC before and I know their seats are very close together and there isn't much legroom.  Therefore, I reserved an aisle seat the day the tickets went on sale.  When I got to the theater, my seat was NOT on the aisle.  There was a chair next to my row/seat.  I asked the usher if that was my seat, and she said no, my seat number was correct on the chair next to the aisle seat.  Hmm.  I thought perhaps that actors would be using that seat, or something, so I didn't really complain. When it was close to curtain, a gentleman came up to my row and saw that his seat was in the middle of the row and asked the usher if he could have that empty seat on the aisle (the one that should've been mine, next to me).  The usher said no, it was reserved.  So he climbed over me and everyone else in the row and sat in his seat.  Then he got back up and said he needed to sit in the aisle seat, he was done being nice about it.  The usher went over to the (maybe) house manager and got the okay for the man to change seats. To MY aisle seat.  So he climbed back over all of us again and sat next to me, in my aisle seat.  THEN HE CALLED HIS WIFE OVER TO SIT NEXT TO HIM, which meant he expected me to get up out of my seat and move over.  I glared at him, the house lights started to go down, and I moved.  Not only did he think his male privilege entitled him to sit where he wanted, not where he reserved, but he also had the right to make everyone else in the row move for him.  As you can imagine, I was crabby beyond belief.  Partly my own fault, I admit, for not making the aisle seat thing known before it got so close to showtime, but still.  The nerve of some people.  Of course it took me a while to get into the performance. 

After all that, I'm happy to say that I did register a complaint with the theater and they very graciously sided with me and offered me a ticket to another performance.  I gratefully took them up on their offer, so I'll be seeing a performance the last week of the run.  I'm a big fan of good customer service, so thumbs up to CSC for responding to me with kindness.  I'll report more about the show then...