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Reviews
Theater Review—'The Humans’ on Broadway
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 20 March 2016 23:36
- Written by Kevin Filipski
The Humans
Written by Stephen Karam; directed by Joe Mantello
Opened February 18, 2016
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| The cast of The Humans (photo: Joan Marcus) |
On Broadway, Stephen Karam’s The Humans shows its seams more readily than it did in its earlier off-Broadway incarnation. In this 95-minute play, the Blake family gathers for a Thanksgiving dinner in youngest daughter Brigid and boyfriend Richard's new Chinatown apartment: father Erik, mother Deirdre and grandmother Fiona drove down from Scranton, while oldest daughter Aimee took the train from Philadelphia.
Although he writes intelligent dialogue for his believable characters, Karam often stacks the deck dramatically, whether spilling family secrets at regular intervals—usually when someone overhears something near the winding staircase separating the apartment's two floors—or dragging in September 11th to give the Blakes another near-tragedy to deal with, as if what's going on in their daily lives isn't enough.
In addition, what was a mere laugh-getter before (upstairs noises, presumably from an annoying neighbor) has been turned into something quasi-supernatural, as the noises get progressively louder until they eventually seem like a horror movie soundtrack. Similarly, the play's final image of a darkened apartment with a door opened onto the building's hallway is the most forced attempt at a desperate shock effect than anything I've seen on Broadway since a ghost's appearance at the end of Shining City.
Then there's Karan asking us to believe that a 60-year-old man and his 61-year-old wife would drive in a Thanksgiving snowstorm for more than three hours with his sickly 79-year-old mother in tow, only to leave after visiting their daughter in Manhattan for a mere hour and a half. Allowing them to spend the night, either at Brigid's place or a nearby motel, and start fresh in the morning would be more—well, humane.
Happily, Joe Mantello's confident direction and the superlative cast—Reed Birney, Jayne Houdyshell, Cassie Beck, Arian Moayed, Lauren Klein and, most impressively, Sarah Steele—make The Humans seem more substantial than it ultimately is.
The Humans
Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street, New York, NY
thehumansonbroadway.com
Broadway Review—‘Disaster!' the Musical
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 18 March 2016 20:45
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Disaster!
Book by Seth Rudetsky & Jack Plotnick; choreographed by JoAnn M. Hunter
Directed by Jack Plotnick
Opened March 8, 2016
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| Adam Rapp and Kerry Butler in Disaster! (photo: Jeremy Daniel) |
Aptly titled, Disaster! is a musical not for the faint of heart. If karaoke versions of cheesy '70s pop hits make you feel queasy, and groaning old jokes and sloppy sight gags give you an upset stomach, then be forewarned: Disaster! revels in gleeful idiocy. Its two hours' traffic on the stage doesn't pretend to be Shakespearean, obviously, but it would have helped if the creators of this forgettable spoof had actually, you know, tried a little harder.
Tepidly parodying the infamous '70s Irwin Allen-style disaster movies—from The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno toEarthquake and Tidal Wave—Disaster! occurs on a newly-outfitted casino boat in New York Harbor, as the usual gaggle of caricatures runs into one another before, during and after lethal Acts of God hit the ship.
That's pretty much it: the entire show consists of long-ago (and mainly forgotten) hits of the era, beginning with "Hot Stuff" and ending with "Hooked on a Feeling," detouring to such nuggets as "Torn Between Two Lovers," "I Will Survive" and "Muskrat Love." Sometimes earnestly, at other times ironically (but always disposably), the songs usually begin after someone makes a remark which is then answered by the first line of the song; whether or not the remainder is apropos is apparently immaterial when deciding which tunes to shoehorn in.
This is sketch comedy of the sub-Saturday Night Live variety (even though that show has itself become sub-SNL), and creators Jack Plotnick—who also nominally directs—and Seth Rudetsky—who also nominally acts—revel in easy jokes and lazy visual humor, which references disco-era fashion and hair. The cast, comprising a surprising list of A-listers, is mostly wasted, especially a game but horrendously used Faith Prince, who spends much of her time spitting out Tourette's-like curses.
Roger Bart's comic oiliness as a dastardly villain is always welcome, while Kerry Butler, the very epitome of sweetness, scores as a tenacious reporter who periodically bursts into things like "I Am Woman." Then there's Rachel York, who manages to raise the hoary cliched bimbo above its usual basement level in a genuinely hilarious performance, besting consensus scene-stealer Jennifer Simard, who plays a nun with a gambling addiction; while amusing, Simard returns to the same well again and again, to diminishing comic returns. (The same could be said for young Baylee Littrell, who plays boy and girl twins with relish, but whose single joke gets less funny as it goes along.)
Like Rock of Ages—another less-than-mediocre jukebox musical that now looks like Oklahoma! in comparison—Disaster! is destined to be campy after-dinner entertainment on a cruise ship, a more suitable venue for it than Broadway.
Disaster!
Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street, New York, NY
disastermusical.com
Minnesota Orchestra Celebrates Sibelius at Carnegie Hall
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 16 March 2016 15:25
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Osmo Vänskä
The excellent musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra returned to Carnegie Hall on the evening of Thursday, March 3rd, for a valuable program devoted to work by Jean Sibelius, in celebration of the sesquicentennial of his birth, with an audience seemingly packed with ardent Minnesotan fans of the ensemble — all this under the admirable direction of Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, perhaps the premier specialist in the orchestral music of this composer.
A lucid account of the rarely played, intriguing Third Symphony opened the concert auspiciously. Star soloist Hilary Hahn then took the stage for an accomplished performance of the more familiar, impressive Violin Concerto. The vigorous applause for the virtuoso was rewarded with a compelling rendition of the Sarabande from J.S. Bach's Partita No. 2 in D Minor.
The second half of the program featured another neglected work, the precocious and Romantic First Symphony, heard here in a confident performance. The enthusiastic ovation was met by the conductor exclaiming "Sibelius" before performing the first of three outstanding encores by that composer: the very seldom heard, beautiful The Countess's Portrait followed by two exquisite selections from the incidental music to William Shakespeare's The Tempest —"Interlude" (Miranda) and "Cortège."
March '16 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 15 March 2016 08:41
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Carol
(Weinstein Co/Anchor Bay)
In adapting Patricia Highsmith's novelThe Price of Salt, Todd Haynes has made another pretty-looking movie that's stylish and glittery but little more than a surface depiction of an intimate female relationship that was forbidden during the straight-laced 1950s.
That the film has more in common with the look of films from that era than it does with depicting a believable same-sex relationship is further reinforced by Cate Blanchett's hammy overacting, Rooney Mara's one-dimensional presence and Carter Burwell's one-note score. Only Sarah Paulson, as Carol's former lover, breathes some needed life into the proceedings. The hi-def transfer looks exquisite; lone extra is a cast/director/writer Q&A.
Manhattan—Complete 2nd Season
(Lionsgate)
As the Manhattan Project continues its inexorable path toward the Trinity atomic-bomb test in the desert, a selection of fictionalized and composite geniuses deal with shifting loyalties and encroaching political and moral issues, even as a real character as Dr. Atomic himself (Oppenheimer) makes a too-brief appearance.
Tension is ratcheted up by degrees throughout season two, even if certain interactions stretch the bounds of plausibility; it's acted so forcefully by John Benjamin Hickey as an uncompromising scientist and Olivia Williams as his unstable wife, that it's never less than watchable. The ten handsomely-mounted episodes look smashing on Blu.
Paprika
(Cult Epics)
Another Tinto Brass softcore spectacular, his 1991 adaptation of the classic novel Fanny Hill—which has spawned innumerable screen versions—finds the dirty old director in his typically voyeuristic mode, glimpsing a naive young woman going to work in a brothel to earn money for her fiancee.
There are moments of amusement amidst the usual labored attempts at eroticism, but Brass fans will still enjoy his parade of fetishistic sex scenes. The hi-def transfer of the uncut version is soft but glossy. Lone extra is a featurette.
Victor Frankenstein
(Fox)
This labored riff on Mary Shelley's classic concentrates as much on Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) as on his eponymous boss (James McAvoy), who "cures" his assistant's hunched back by draining an overgrown cyst (who knew?).
Although director Paul McGuigan conjures a properly foreboding Victorian atmosphere, it's basically a lot of sound and fury signifying little, and an unpleasant gloss on the original, despite committed performances and arresting visuals. The movie looks impressive on Blu; extras include deleted scenes, featurettes and interviews.
DVD of the Week
Addiction Incorporated
(Virgil Films)
A solid overview of how tobacco companies finally lost their huge advantage—acting as if their cigarette products were not addictive—Charles Evans' absorbing documentary revolves around Victor DeNoble, a Philip Morris researcher who became Big Tobacco's first whistle blower in 1994 when he explained to Congress what was really going on.
How the government finally overcame the entrenched industry—helped by massive class-action suits, eventually settled out of court, that noted the rising health care costs because of smokers' illnesses were being absorbed by the rest of us—is acutely observed.
CD of the Week
Prokofiev—Piano Concerto No. 3, Symphony No. 5
(Mariinsky)
Valery Gergiev has championed fellow Russian Serge Prokofiev's music, conducting his operas, ballets, concertos and symphonies for decades, and this recording (made in 2012) of the composer's most popular concerto and symphony allows Gergiev to further his case that Prokofiev was among the most significant composers of the last (or any) century.
Soloist Denis Matsuev's sprightly playing in the third piano concerto perfectly meshes with the nimble orchestral performance underlining one of the greatest-ever keyboard showcases, while Gergiev and his musicians catch the simultaneous lightness and gravity of the towering fifth symphony in their lucid, even thrilling account.
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