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Theater Review: “Peter and the Starcatcher” is Enormously Clever, Wildly Comic Peter Pan Prequel
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 24 December 2012 16:58
- Written by Lucy Komisar
“Peter and the Starcatcher”
Written by Rick Elice
Directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers
Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.
Starring: Matthew Saldivar, Celia- Keenan Bolger, Adam Chanler-Berat, Teddy Bergman, Arnie Burton, Matt D'Amico, Kevin Del Aguila, Carson Elrod, Evan Harrington, Rick Holmes, Isaiah Johnson, Eric Petersen
Wild and wonderful and definitely not only for children, Rick Elice’s play imagines what turned a mistreated orphan boy into Peter Pan.
Captain Hook and the crocodile are there, too, and we find out how they got the hook and the tick-tock. While you get the history lesson, you will enjoy one of the cleverest, funniest spoofs to come down the pike in years with direction by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers that is truly inspired.
In 1885 two sailing ships were making for an unknown Asian country. The one captained by the brigand Slank (Matt D’Amico) was transporting Peter (Adam Chanler-Berat), who didn’t yet have a name, and some other boys to be servants for the Asian potentate.
Another ship was carrying the aristocrat Lord Aster (Karl Kenzler) to deliver a very valuable trunk to the same destination. But that ship is taken over by pirates led by the comically threatening Black Stache (the unforgettable Christian Borle) who is after the trunk, which is full of treasures like stocks, bonds and unregulated derivatives.
Stash, with a villainous painted-on moustache, says he has “no heir apparent” (which he pronounces “hair apparent.”) Borle, who had a starring role in “Spamalot,” recreates the brilliance of his unforgettable comic style and grin.
Aster’s daughter Molly (Celia Keenan-Bolger) is on the boys’ boat and helps them get decent food. (I don’t want to tell you what they had been fed – it’s every kid’s horror.) Molly is a take-charge self-assertive young lady who is competitive against the boys and in a running joke is repeatedly challenged by Prentiss (Carson Elrod), who wants to be the leader.
At a certain point, Stache discovers that the trunks have been switched on the dock and he is carrying a load of sand. He takes off for the other vessel.
There ensue battles, shipwrecks and myriad adventures. There’s a running-in-place fight between two villains wielding weapons of poetry. The action moves from ship decks and holds to a fantastic island (Sets by Donyale Werle.)
T
eddy Bergman is very funny as the Fighting Prawn who heads the Mollusk Islanders. He punctuates his remarks with exclamations like “scampi,” “calamari,” “lasagna” and “tiramisu.”
The music by Wayne Barker is a collection of Hollywood extravaganza, ragtime and Broadway. Much of the dialogue takes place in chorus. My favorite number is the 1940s movie-style dance number where the guys (Molly is the only female in a cast of 12) dance and sing as mermaids with pulchritude created by silvery food steamers and the like. (The costumes by Paloma Young are terrific.)
There are some inside show biz jokes, such as one character claiming, “You abused the concept of the theater collective.” Smee, a long-faced Cockney (a very good Kevin Del Aguila) declares that the crocodile is “chewing the scenery,” and Stash describes something as “elusive as the melody in a Philip Glass opera.” There’s also a “Les Miz” moment when Molly is wheeled out on a high platform.
It’s all very witty and nutty making this a theater classic every bit as much as “Peter Pan” was.
Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 356 West 47th Street, New York City. (212-307-4100)
April 15, 2012-Jan 20, 2013.
(Originally produced by the New York Theatre Workshop March 9 to April 24, 2011.
Theater Review: “Chaplin”- A Brilliant Musical About the Life and Politics of a Great Artist
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 24 December 2012 01:28
- Written by Lucy Komisar
“Chaplin”
Book by Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan
Music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis
Directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle
Starring Rob McClure, Jim Borstelmann, Jenn Colella, Erin Mackey, Michael McCormick, Christiane Noll, Zachary Unger, Wayne Alan Wilcox, Justin Bowen, Emilee Dupre
Charlie Chaplin wasn’t just an actor. He created the characters he portrayed, wrote and directed the films he starred in. There hasn’t been anyone like him since. But his art, his life, and above all his ideas were dangerous to the political system. The opening of “Chaplin” shows him on a tightrope, and he was heading for a fall.
Based on a book by Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan and with music and lyrics by Curtis, this is the best, most powerful, most intelligent new musical of the season. It's inventive and often thrilling and a worthy tribute to Chaplin the man and the artist.
The creativity of the writers and director-choreographer Warren Carlyle rivals Chaplin’s own. His past is portrayed in black and white---the shades and shadows of a film of his life. Chaplin racing on a turntable recalls the flickers of an early film.
The central conceit tracks the way Chaplin’s art was essentially inspired by his mother’s advice to look inside people, their stories, their hearts. She said, “Then you can play your part.” The genius of this musical is to show a backdrop screen with a Chaplin film that echoes the biographical events that occur on the stage.
The iconic film “The Kid” is shown when the play depicts the childhood of Chaplin, the poor London youth with a father who deserted him and a mother who was a music hall performer and then left him alone and destitute when she was hospitalized.
We see the kid on the screen being taken from his mother in a scene shown repeatedly as a backdrop to Chaplin’s life. There’s a direct line to him picking up the long shoes and bowler hat that represented the character of The Tramp.
Rob McClure is superb and dynamic as Chaplin, both in a dramatic role and as a musical performer. His face and demeanor and his quirky smile conjure up the master. He has a good Broadway voice, though it sometimes is not melodic enough and suffers from Broadway over-miking. Zachary Unger also plays a cute young Chaplin and the child actor Jackie Coogan.
We see the development of “The Gold Rush” and “Modern Times.” There is dazzling staging and choreography of the Hollywood years, jazzy songs and dancing. The sets by Beowulf Boritt and costumes by Amy Clark and Martin Pakledinaz are smart and evocative.
Chaplin set up his own studio. Perhaps looking for the love he missed as a child, or as part of the Hollywood casting couch, Chaplin had a lot of women, many of whom (according to the play) threw themselves at him.
They also choose to include the actress Paulette Goddard as Hollywood is shown as a circus with hoops and dancing girls with cash bags and ex-wives that claim big settlements.
But politics was more dangerous than dalliances. With the rise of Hitler, the mass war deaths in Russia, and the U.S. staying out, Chaplin, who was Jewish, gave speeches calling for entry into the war. He made “The Great Dictator” in 1940.
The running joke is that a Jewish barber is mistaken for Hitler and makes a speech about peace. Using real video of Hitler at a rally, he imitates his gestures, then turns off the sound and adds text to say, “I’m a little teapot.” Biting satire for the time. And apparently premature anti-fascism. It took the U.S. entry into the war for the studios to churn out the anti-German pro-U.S. military movies of the forties. It’s all about timing.
Meanwhile, the politics of anti-communism would bring Chaplin down. The vicious Hedda Hopper (a taut, tart Jenn Colella), angry because Chaplin wouldn’t go on her radio show, decided to slander him as a communist.
Hooper's a pro-German, who taped him at rallies, and collaborated with U.S. Attorney General McGranery (Michael McCormick) to target him for politically incorrect speech. She also managed to promote a paternity suit by a putative lover. “What you gonna do when it all falls down” is a jazzy, brilliant number.
Chaplin left the U.S. for Switzerland in 1952, sleazy FBI Director Herbert Hoover got the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revoke his re-entry permit, and Chaplin returned only twenty years later in 1972 to receive an honorary Academy Award and a glittering audience ovation. This all just a month before Hoover died. By then, even in Hollywood everyone knew that fascism was bad and that Chaplin’s detractors had been evil.
This is a memorable theater experience.
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 West 47th Street, New York City. (212-239-6200)
Sept 10, 2012 - Jan 6, 2013.
December '12 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 23 December 2012 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Another intriguing film, it uses old, “decaying” footage (hence the punning title) that’s unfortunately married to a monotonous Michael Gordon score, which makes it problematic despite its uniqueness. The Blu-ray image is good; the lone extra is Morrison’s 2004 short, Light Is Calling.
Witty visuals like the opening sequence (which should be a short of its own) and huffing and puffing by Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, Jennifer Lopez and Queen Latifah (among other voices) can’t compensate for comic flimsiness. The Blu-ray image is impeccable; extras include deleted scenes and interactive viewing mode.
But as Baichwal follows Burtynsky through China, she also creates an illuminating portrait of the devastating effects of a massive industrial revolution. The amazing clarity of the Blu-ray image is made for this visual feast; extras include 30 minutes of deleted scenes and interviews with Baichwal, Burtynsky and Mettler.
Conductor Franz Welser-Most beautifully conducts the Zurich Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, adroitly spinning Debussy’s gossamer musical web. But Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s misguided direction horribly butchers such an idealized vision, proving that bad ideas beget bad stagings. The Blu-ray image and sound are tremendous.
Although overlong with too many characters and subplots and no ending, it’s Lee’s most pointed character study—and Bruce Hornsby’s beguiling piano score is a genuine plus. The fine cast includes actors from She’s Gotta Have It doing their own thing. The Blu-ray image is stellar; extras comprise Lee’s commentary, on-set featurette and music video.
Making Jamie Linden’s movie tolerable is an attractive cast: Channing Tatum and real-life wife Jenna Dewan Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Ari Graynor, Lily Collins and Max Minghella turn these stereotypes into interesting people. The hi-def image is first-rate; deleted scenes are the lone extra.
Of course, Wiseman isn’t Ridley Scott or David Fincher, so his movie has a clunkiness that’s especially noticeable in the 130-minute unrated version. Colin Farrell is a decent hero; Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale (the real-life Mrs. Wiseman), are fun action heroines. The Blu-ray image is good; extras are featurettes, director commentary and gag reel.
Eastwood is amusing and Amy Adams is delightful, but eternal lightweight Justin Timberlake fatally damages the romantic subplot. Writer Randy Brown and director Robert Lorenz show little, despite mentor Eastwood’s backing. The Blu-ray image is good; two featurettes are the extras.
Rehearsal follows John Turturro’s visit to Sicily (his homeland on his mother’s side) as he learns about the lost art of puppetry with Mimmo Cuticchio, while YERT (which stands for “Your Environmental Road Trip) shows a group traveling through all 50 states for a year recycling their garbage. Both films introduce viewers to “characters” in the truest sense, presenting them without condescension but a shared humanity and amusement at our self-inflicted wounds.
Interestingly, only Russian conductor Valery Gergiev speaks in English: the rest range from speaking Russian (Shchedrin) to German (Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel). In addition to the enlightening doc, there are two full-length bonuses: an hour-long interview with Shchedrin and an 85-minute all-Shchedrin concert in Moscow on his 75th birthday in 2007.
Included in this 22-episode season boxed set are such classics as Treehouse of Horror XIV; celebrity guest voices range from Jerry Lewis, Tony Blair and Jackie Mason to the Olsen twins and Mr. T. Extras include Matt Groening intro, commentaries on every episode, deleted scenes and featurettes.
There are few thrilling moments as the work meanders along, which might work onstage as one watches the play; just listening gets quickly tiresome. The vocal soloists don’t get a chance to impress, Simon Callow’s narration provides needed color, and Sir Andrew Davis adeptly conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
These rarely known chamber works by these late 19thcentury Polish composers, while typically Romantic, have an original quality that distinguishes them individually.
Juliusz Zarebski’s Piano Quintet displays a freshness and melodic brilliance that makes one wonder what he might have achieved if he hadn’t died of TB at age 31 in 1885; Wladyslaw Zelenski’s quartet unveils its composer’s profoundly lyric sensibility, from its folk-tune opening to its rousing flourish at its finale.
NYC Theater Roundup: 'Golden Boy' On Broadway; 'Great God Pan' Off Broadway
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 20 December 2012 15:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Golden Boy
Written by Amy Herzog; directed by Carolyn Cantor
Performances through January 13, 2013
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| Strahovski, Numrich in Golden Boy (photo: Paul Kolnik) |
It’s not easy to make a creaky theatrical piece an edge-of-your-seat spellbinder. But that’s what director Bartlett Sher has done with Golden Boy, Clifford Odets’ tragic melodrama that, in this scorching 75th anniversary production (in the theater it premiered at), feels more urgent than anything on or off Broadway.
If Tony Shaloub, as Joe’s immigrant father, overdoes his “Eye-talian” accent, he also has profound moments of quiet subtlety toward the end; likewise, Anthony Crivello’s Eddie Fuselli—the mobster promoter who buys a piece of Joe on his way up—begins as an unbearable Little Italy stereotype, then shrewdly reins it in as the show progresses.
Seth Numrich’s Joe perfectly blends bravado and vulnerability, especially in his intimate scenes with Yvonne Strahovski, a superb Australian actress who, in her Broadway debut, takes the stock part of Lorna, Tom Moody’s secretary/mistress from New Joisey, and invests her with so much emotional intensity that she almost steals the play from Odets’ conflicted protagonist.
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| Strong, Goldberg in Pan (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Jamie, a 30ish blogger, meets with Frank, a childhood friend he hasn’t seen in years, who confesses that his own father sexually abused him and asks Jamie if he remembers anything that might bolster the criminal case against his dad. Jamie initially demurs, but slowly discovers more about what may have happened to him when he was a child—talking to his sympathetic girlfriend Paige, visiting his parents and the old lady who was his and Frank’s babysitter—but despite circumstantial evidence that something might have happened, he can’t (or won’t) remember.
Herzog also includes two dramatically deadly scenes in which Paige—an ex-dancer whose injury ended her career—in her new role as therapist deals with an anorexic teenage girl; they feel like forced attempts to draw a parallel to Jamie’s own emotional baggage.
Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44thStreet, New York, NY
Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42ndStreet, New York, NY
