A Friday Photo Flashback (how's that for alliteration?!)

Every year, I send out holiday cards full of pictures of me and my nephew.  I figure until he demands that I stop, I'll keep doing it.  I suppose I'll stop before his wedding photos are printed.  Maybe.  Anyway.  Moving on.  A beautiful gal pal told me she kinda misses the OTHER hoiday cards I used to send out - on occasion, I would send photo cards featuring pictures of the famous people (mainly writers) I'd been lucky enough to meet that year.  So, in honor of my beautiful gal pal (and to do some flashing back), I present the photographic equivalent of shameless name dropping: pictures of me and famous people.  Sorry.  But I do enjoy looking at the different hues of my hair over the years... The official-looking photos were taken by the wonderfully talented photographer Douglas Gorenstein.  Enjoy.  :)

performer Sam Harris

performer Raul Esparza

playwright David Grimm

composer/lyricist Jerry Herman

playwright Warren Leight

playwright Horton Foote

performer/producer Tom Hulce

performer Michael Cerveris

playwright Christopher Durang

playwright Craig Lucas

composer/lyricist Mark Hollmann

Pretty Alice Ripley (college chum and genius actress)

librettist John Weidman

playwright Tina Howe

lyricist Sheldon Harnick

 

Tony-winning composer/lyricists Bobby Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Renaissance man Austin Pendleton

 

playwright John Guare

composer/lyricists Bobby and Kristen Anderson Lopez, one week before their Oscar win

composer/lyricist Amanda Green

And the most magical wonderful photo of me ever taken.  I still can't quite believe it's real.  And it is.  No CGI here:

Albee, Sondheim and me.  Seriously.

Movie Reviews - Foxcatcher and Wild

I believe I've mentioned in the past I'm not really a movie buff (though when I say that, I think of Dana Ivey in the remake of Sabrina - the way she says "...BUFF?!" is hysterical. I'm always quoting movies to myself in my head.  OK. Moving on).  But I've recently seen a couple of movies that have been highly touted as Oscar vehicles for their stars, so I thought I'd jot down a few notes.  I agree that both stars do fantastic work and would be worthy Oscar contenders, but I didn't find the films that surrounded their performances to be entirely successful...   (fyi, the photos I've attached from the films came up on the internet without photo credits.  I will of course remove them if so asked)

After Thanksgiving dinner, my pals and I took a stroll.  We passed by the Sunshine Cinemas on the Lower East Side and when I saw it was playing Foxcatcher, I decided to stop.  My pals went to see another movie closer to their home.  I've been very interested in Foxcatcher because I'm a big fan of Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo, and I'm also a big fan of Olympic sports, so I remember when the action that led to this movie actually happened.

Steve Carell plays milionnaire John du Pont, who, out of the blue, decided to fund Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (played by Channing Tatum), for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.  Schultz and his brother had both won gold medals in 1984, but their life paths diverged afterwards - Mark became a sullen, socially awkward misfit, while his brother Dave (played by Mark Ruffalo) became a coach and had a happy family life with a lovely wife and two kids. 

There are so many psychological issues floating around this film that are never addressed, it's a little odd.  The film is very atmospheric, but it's also flat and rather sterile.  The acting is fantastic by all three men, and, of course, by Vanessa Redgrave who plays du Pont's domineering mother - I found her so compelling that I was often wondering, when she wasn't on screen, what her character was up to.  Is that my problem or the fault of the film?  Who knows...

I did get a good sense of the connection between the brothers and the insular world of Olympic wrestling.  What was missing was more...something.  There was so much that was unsaid - all three main characters were socially awkward and intensely nonverbal.  But that can make a film hard to watch, or at least hard to connect to.  When so much of the anguish is so deeply internalized that it never gets expressed, it can be frustrating as an audience member.  At least this audience member.



But, again, Steve Carell was fantastic.  He is nearly unrecognizable under some facial prosthetics and with a bizarre, off-kilter, speech pattern.  He is very wily in knowing just how long to hold off continuing his next line - the pauses pull you in and he quits just short of making you think "ugh, never mind."  I mean, clearly the subtext was that he was completely dominated by his mother, perhaps schizophrenic, and possibly a DEEPLY closted gay man.  But the movie never tells us, or really shows us, anything.  There was a weird vaguely gay subtext that probably didn't belong in this edit of the movie -either put it in full force or don't.  Don't just tiptoe around this man's crazy craziness.  Mark Ruffalo, as usual, was completely honest and compelling.  Seriously, has he ever given a dishonest performance?  You could see his love and compassion for his brother, which superceded his distrust of du Pont.  He was just so real and great.  Channing Tatum was also quite good, though his character suffered from the internalization problems.  He was so closed off and shut in, it was almost hard to care about what happened to him.  He clearly had separation anxiety and maybe some daddy issues, but he has so little dialogue and I really couldn't live on sullen looks alone.  Not the actor's fault, though.  I think it's the direction and the script and maybe the editing of the movie that let him down a bit.  Or let me down a bit.

If you're interested in seeing some really good acting in a true story that asks more questions than you probably want (but doesn't answer many), go to see Foxcatcher.  The three leads, and Vanessa Redgrave, are always worth a look.

I went last night with a beautiful gal pal to see Wild, the new movie starring Reese Witherspoon.  I am a huge fan of Witherspoon's, I find her whip smart and funny and she always makes clear, truthful choices for her characters.  No fussiness for Reese.  Wild is also based on a true story, on a woman's search for self after the death of her beloved mother.  She decides to hike along the Pacific Crest Trail for 1,100 miles to try to reconcile herself to the loss of her mother and the disintegration of her marriage.  Reese gives a thoroughly committed performance as Cheryl Strayed, a self-destructive but vulnerable woman who just wants to find meaning in her life again.  Her performance is really smart, honest and beyond reproach, but I found much of the movie to be a little too reliant on flash cuts and manipulative flashbacks and song choices.  Plus, like Foxcatcher, a lot of what happens is so internal that I could've used a little more creative license and a little less solitude.

In reading some press about the movie, I see it follows the form of the original memoir, with many flashbacks and non-chronological storytelling.  I don't mind that, because often memory will trigger emotion which will trigger action.  But I did find some of the flashbacks to be a bit gratuitous and heavy handed.  And the on-screen placards that came up to tell us what day of the hike we would be seeing just became annoying.  I started to think, ugh, hurry this up.  Which probably wasn't their goal.

Laura Dern, as the beloved mother, also gives a wonderful performance, but I found her character to be a little too saintly.  Of course, that may be how her daughter remembers her, but that much perfection stacks the deck against Cheryl.  Cheryl also meets up with so many people during her hike, most of whom are men, and we are constantly set up to feel that someone is going to take advantage or hurt her.  At one point, we even see a gun and I thought of the Chekhov line about never showing a gun at the beginning if you don't mean to use it at the end.  So the movie always had the possibility of peril and I'm sure that's how her real-life experience panned out, but to have nothing come of the peril seems manipulative.

 

There's also a lot of humor and honest humanity in Wild, so I did enjoy it, and I definitely think it's worth seeing because it's nice to see a story with a strong (if flawed) female front and center, but I think it could've been even more moving as a whole.  That's not to say I didn't tear up at the little deus ex machina at the end and his little song...

 

Maybe I need to up my film consumption.  I don't know.  I did want to see the new Disney film, I just never get around to it.  I think the only other movie I'm REALLY looking forward to is Into the Woods, which I've already informed my family we're seeing on Christmas Day.  Oh, wait, no, I'm seeing a movie Monday night.  You'll just have to wait to find out what it is...

Last Night in NYC (holiday photos!)

I met a beautiful gal pal last night and we went to the David Rubenstein Atrium to check out their Downton Abbey teaser - we may have received a prize (but I can't say what it is because it will probably be regifted for the holidays, lol!), and we also had our photos taken with very wooden facsimiles of the actors.  Fun.  We had a lovely time, though I always have a lovely time with a beautiful gal pal.  Afterwards, we wandered uptown so my gal pal could do a little shopping; we stopped at a couple of stores where I wanted to buy EVERYTHING.  I guess it was a good thing I'm out of money until tomorrow.  Though I did buy myself a tiny pick-me-up that was on sale.  I'm saving a photo of that for a later holiday post.  But enjoy some of the photos I got as I wandered around town, plus a couple of cute decorated houses around my place.  Hoping to make it to some major holiday decor over the weekend...

 

 

 

Thoughts on My Favorite Year and Every Brilliant Thing

I believe I've mentioned before how much I love Ahrens & Flaherty's musicals - Once on this Island is perfect, in my humble opinion, and I was so lucky to see the original Broadway production a couple of times.  Their next Broadway show happened when I didn't live in New York, so I didn't get to see the original production of My Favorite Year when it opened.  I grabbed the original cast album as soon as it was available, since I loved OOTI so much AND since I adored the film of My Favorite Year.  It's one my my favorites and I quote it often.  Peter O'Toole was frigging brilliant.  I figured it was a perfect combination.  I wore my cast album out from listening to it so much - I think that score is fantastic.  I could not figure out how that show wasn't a success!

I did happen to catch a small production of My Favorite Year and realized the problem was, sorry, with the libretto.  It wasn't as fast and funny as the film's screenplay or as the terrific songs throughout the score.  So after seeing that production, I guess I just felt I'd listen and enjoy my cast album but I wouldn't get to see a revival anytime soon.

[side note featuring name dropping, sorry]:  once, when I was chatting with Stephen Flaherty, I mentioned how much I love the score to My Favorite Year and what would it take to get it produced?  He said, but who would play Alan Swann?  I said, duh, Douglas Sills!  God's honest truth!  This was at least five years ago!  Think on that as you read on...]

Cut to last month, when I saw a press release that casting for the York Theatre Company's Musicals in Mufti production of My Favorite Year was complete.  A young actor who was in Next to Normal would be playing Benjy Stone and Alan Swann would be played by...wait for it...Douglas Sills!  I'm a genius!  A seer!  I was so excited when I read the press release that I immediately went online and bought a ticket.  Have I ever mentioned I love Douglas Sills?  No?  Well, I do.  I often wonder why people aren't constantly writing shows for him to star in...

Friday night, I took myself to Saint Peter's Church to see My Favorite Year.  For some reason, every time I head to the York, it pours the rain.  Every time.  And Friday was no exception.  Pouring.  At least I got to see the pretty holiday tree in the Citigroup Center's courtyard.  That always cheers a girl.  I also got to see several friends in the audience, so it was lovely to catch up with them.  And then I got to see the fantastic production.  Oh my.  What a wonderful wonderful evening.  My seat neighbor was very pleasant.  The entire cast was terrific, the book has been tightened and tweaked; now it's so fast and funny, you have a smile on your face for over two hours straight.  And I was right: Douglas Sills is PERFECT as Alan Swann.  The new songs for his character are really great, especially the song at the end when he realizes the television show will be performed live.  But, really, everything was fantastic.  The changes they've made have made an already fun show even better.  The audience went absolutely crazy for it - I've heard that every performance over the weekend was sold out and the response was the same, pure joy.  I hope there's more life for My Favorite Year; we can always use a musical that puts a smile on your face and leaves it there.  I've been listening to my cast album on repeat since Friday...

A handsome chum sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd be interested in checking out a new play imported from the Edinburgh Fringe Fest.  Sure!  A free ticket to see a show with a handsome chum?  I'm in!  Saturday night it was still raining, but I dragged myself in to see Every Brilliant Thing at the Barrow Street Theatre.

I got to the city a little early so I could stop by my office to check the mail (unsolicited tip: don't let your debit card number get stolen before the holidays.  A thief has emptied my account and it's taking forever for the fraud people to give me my money back.  I was hoping a care package from my mother arrived at the office Saturday, but it didn't.  It didn't arrive today either.  So now I hate the person who stole my money AND the US Postal Service), and my goodness, don't try to walk around Times Square on a Saturday.  It was INSANE.  The worst I've ever seen it.  It took me forever to walk the block and a half from the subway to my office.  Moving on.  I rode down to the Barrow Street Theatre to meet my handsome chum for a pre-show drink.  After walking around entirely too long trying to find a place where we could hear ourselves think, we ended up at a place whose name escapes me (probably for good reason).  We ordered a glass of montepulciano and it tasted watered down and rather sour.  So we sent them back and ordered a glass of malbec.  Same thing.  I mean, I'm no wine snob and I'm actually pretty easy to please, and I have never sent two glasses of wine back, but these were not good in the extreme.  I went up to the bar and asked the bartender about the bottles.  She poured herself a little taste and said they tasted good to her.  Yuck.  I decided to order a margarita instead.  It was also ungood.  My handsome chum's beer was passable, he said.  So, if I could remember the name of that place, I would tell you not to order wine if you go there.  At least it was a quiet-ish spot and we could chat for a while, if not drink.  Although, even though I didn't finish any of my drinks, having a few sips of two glasses of wine and maybe half a bad margarita on an empty stomach still made me a bit tipsy.  Oh well.

Every Brilliant Thing is a one-man show about a boy who makes a list of brilliant things (he's British, of course) to cheer his suicidal mother.  As he grows up, he keeps adding to the list and uses it to maneuver through tough times in his life.  The play has a credited playwright and the performer is also listed as 'writer.'  I can't quite tell if this was supposed to be autobiographical.  It seemed as if it was supposed to be, but I don't know.

The performer is quite charming and open and finds many laughs in the piece.  It runs about 65 minutes, sharing quite a few things from the 'list', many of which made me smile with recognition, and also quite a bit of audience participation.  I enjoyed myself well enough throughout, though I thought the piece itself was rather simplistic and manipulative.  But the performer had enough good cheer that I was happy to watch him, I was interested in how it would turn out, and I thought about things I would put on my own list of 'brilliant things'.  And then I admit once the show was over, I pretty much forgot about it.  I rode home on the subway and read Persuasion.  I didn't think about the play again until the next day, when my handsome chum texted me and admitted he was bothered by the manipulation and the shameless use of the audience participation.  I do agree with him.  I guess it didn't bother me during, mainly thanks to the extremely winning performer.  But nothing about the play stayed with me and I feel this should've been a very powerful and moving, even uplifting, experience.  I don't know.  The rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it.  Except for my seat neighbor on my left.  She checked her phone every two minutes.  Annoying.  Anyway, I guess if you're in the mood for (in my opinion) a rather forgettable play that sort of reminds you to find the joy, Every Brilliant Thing could be for you.  :)  Just don't go to that bar we went to.  Their wine is terrible.

Review - A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations)

Earlier this fall, I was at my favorite spot, the Signature Theater, taking a tour of the space for a possible special event rental for my job.  When I was there, I saw a postcard of the new Sam Shepard play and saw that the postcard said "tickets on sale tomorrow."  I immediately texted a handsome chum and said we had to get tickets.  Because my handsome chum is also a gem, he immediately secured our tickets.  We've had them for ever so long and last night was finally the night we saw A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations).

In the back of my mind, I knew that this play didn't get stellar reviews, but I didn't care.  It's a new Sam Shepard play!  Starring Stephen Rea (who I've never seen onstage before)!  Plus I was going with a handsome chum!  What could go wrong?!  Well, nothing actually.  I had a lovely evening.  No, I don't think this is a great play, but I think that something occasionally-interesting-but-maybe-not-so-completely-great by Sam Shepard is still better than a lot of stuff out there...

Given that Shepard has dabbled in high and low poetry in much of his work over the years, I'm actually surprised it's taken him so long to do this kind of piece.  As the title suggests, there are 'variations' on the theme of Oedipus, along with representations of the actual Oedipus story.  The variations even include a musical score, played underneath to emphasize the mood.

The variations/stories/scenes don't play chronologically, or even make much sense from scene to scene, but cumulatively, it does add up to something intriguing.  Maybe more intellectually intriguing as a dramatic exercise than as a full theatrical experience, but intriguing nonetheless.  I especially enjoyed the ideas that Shepard throws out about how these kinds of stories are as old as time, yet still happen now.  There was a quality that the stories were happening then, happening now and will happen again.  I liked that.  How hubris and rage and revenge aren't antiquated ideas, but things we as humans still struggle with today.  That was compelling to me.

photo credit: Matthew Murphy

I also thought the acting was quite good, especially Stephen Rea, who has a visceral sense of groundedness about him, whether he was playing Oedipus, a variation of Oedipus or just an idea.  He was wonderfully layered, with a lot of rage and pain, arrogance and conceit.  I really liked him.  Lloyd Hutchinson was creepy and magnetic as different versions of the seer Tiresias; I also liked Aidan Redmond as King Laius, or the Vegas kingpin, or the descendant of either.  I thought he brought a nice touch of vulnerable arrogance, which isn't easy to pull off.  I found the ladies less successful, but oh well.  I didn't really understand the set, which looked like a mental hospital, or much of the highly stylized staging, but I can say I was never bored - I might've been confused or frustrated, but never bored - and I was always intrigued with what would come next.    I just don't think that what often came next was always successful.  But, hey, who am I?  I just read today that a revival of Fool for Love will be coming to Broadway next year.  I am really looking forward to that: as I said before, it's Sam Shepard!  So I will be there.

Review - The Oldest Boy

I'm a big fan of Sarah Ruhl's work - while I acknowledge that sometimes she can veer off into the 'twee' territory, most of the time I find her poetry and gorgeous imagery to be quite moving, plus she really doesn't write like anyone else, which is always a nice change.  So when a friend of a friend offered me a free ticket for last Wednesday night's performance of her new play, The Oldest Boy, I pounced.

And I'm ever so glad I did.  I love plays that explore spirituality and searching - having no particular religion in my life, I enjoy hearing the arguments and defenses of various faiths enacted on stage.  In The Oldest Boy, Buddhism is front and center.  Celia Keenan-Bolger plays a young American woman, married to a Tibetan in exile, and they are raising a young son.  At the top of the play, we see her struggling to meditate, and then her life is thrown into turmoil because of a visit from two monks, who inform the young couple that their son is most likely the reincarnation of a revered Tibetan Lama.



photo credit: Sara Krulwich

What follows are discussions about faith, family, sacrifice, culture, selflessness, home, knowledge, teachers and so much more.  Yes, maybe some of the issues are touched on a little too briefly, but I was completely transfixed and incredibly moved throughout the production.  Though the play action is presented in a pretty straight-forward fashion, Ruhl also uses other theatrical conventions, both Western and Eastern, to make the experience so much richer.  The young son, Tenzen, is represented by a Bunraku puppet; there is also dance and music used to propel the story.  The fourth wall is frequently broken, and the narration (and dual narration) enriches the backstories.  The physical production is also amazing, so I felt like I was just surrounded by so much beauty.  

I especially loved the comparisons of an educational mentor to a spiritual mentor - the mixing and joining of intellect and faith was just lovely.  There was a wonderful extended conversation between one of the monks and the mother, about using what your mentor gives you and learning to stand on your own (and learning to let go what isn't of use).  I had tears in my eyes throughout that scene, it was just so delicate and moving and true.

photo credit: T. Charles Erickson

All of the acting was simply fantastic - they took me on a journey I hadn't been on before.  I also learned a bit about a religion I know next to nothing about, and something about a people who are infrequently portrayed on stage.  There are some notes in the Playbill about Tibet, and the play itself uses some bold imagery to highlight the sorrow of Tibetan exiles.  The ideas of never being able to go home, and how do you keep your culture alive wherever you are, were very thought-provoking.  The Buddhist idea of 'taking refuge' looms very large throughout the entire play.  Maybe the play lacked true dramatic tension because you're not really in doubt of what will happen, but I found the ideas and the execution of the ideas compelling.  There is also a lot of humor in The Oldest Boy, in case you were worried it was just a bunch of spiritual mumbo jumbo.  I just liked the way the struggle was presented and hearing the characters work their ways through the struggles.  I give The Oldest Boy a huge thumbs up and hope everyone can find time to add this delicate rumination to their list of must-see theater this season...