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Theater Roundup: 'Scandalous,' 'Edwin Drood,' 'Golden Child,' 'Piano Lesson,' 'Emotional Creature'

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Wednesday, 21 November 2012 05:00
Written by Kevin Filipski

Scandalous

Book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford; music by David Pomerantz and David Friedman
Directed by David Armstrong
Performances began October 13, 2012

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Music, lyrics and book by Rupert Holmes; directed by Scott Ellis
Performances through February 10, 2013

Golden Child
Written by David Henry Hwang; directed by Leigh Silverman
Performances through December 16, 2012
The Piano Lesson
Written by August Wilson; directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Performances through December 30, 2012
Emotional Creature
Written by Eve Ensler; directed by Jo Bonney
Performances through January 13, 2013

Scandalous (photo: Jeremy Daniel)

Aimee Semple McPherson had an incredible life—born to a God-fearing mother in western Canada, she hated religion until seeing the light as a teenager and becoming a famous and influential (if controversial) preacher with her own church in Los Angeles until her death at age 52—but you’d never know it from the formulaic musical Kathie Lee Gifford has fashioned from such rich ore: Scandalous is anything but.
Scandalous has been Gifford’s baby for years, and her book and lyrics show that she’s researched McPherson’s life assiduously: unfortunately, she’s unable to transform that into a compellingly theatrical show. Scenes showing McPherson from naïve teen to high-powered minister flit by chronologically but with little dramatic thrust. The music by two Davids, Pomerantz and Friedman (Gifford and McPherson’s own hymns also contribute), is passable Broadway pastiche, but its fist-pumpingly generic gospel numbers sound suspiciously similar to another lackluster preacher musical, Leap of Faith, which flopped on Broadway last spring.
Another David, Armstrong, provides slick direction that is unable to fit floundering parts into a cohesive whole, but as Aimee, Carolee Carmello is fiercely persuasive both as the young Canadian girl and the rich and infamous preacher. Her powerhouse voice makes the songs, the character and the show itself seem stronger than it is.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (photo: Joan Marcus)

A new Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Rupert Holmes’ delightful 1986 multi-Tony winner, is one of those sheerly entertaining musicals that come along much too rarely. Based on Charles Dickens’ final—and unfinished—novel about the disappearance of a young man in Victorian England, Drood prominently features a gimmick: audiences choose the criminal, detective in disguise and romantic couple.
Even though that gimmick adds fun—and audience participation—to the proceedings, Drood is a solidly comic and musical trip on its own terms, starting with Holmes’ tuneful score, a loving throwback to British music hall performances (Drood itself is a show within a show, its actors playing performers playing characters in Drood), and his equally clever lyrics and book round out the amusement.
The revival is staged to a frothy fare-thee-well by Scott Ellis, assisted by Anna Louizos’ outlandish sets and William Ivey Long’s perfect costumes. The cast is supremely in on the joke, with standouts grand dame Chita Rivera, TV’s Smash star Will Chase, silvery-voiced Betsy Wolfe and Jim Norton’s beguiling master of ceremonies.

Golden Child (photo: Richard Termine)

Off-Broadway, the Signature Theatre is reviving two plays that were on Broadway in the ‘90s. By far the lesser is Golden Child, which David Henry Hwang (who won the 1988 Tony for M. Butterfly) wrote about his family: the heroine is his grandmother, seen as a feisty old lady at the opening (and in the epilogue) being interviewed by her teenage grandson in 1968 in the Philippines. The bulk of the play, which takes place in China in 1918-19, shows Grandma as a young child whose polygamous father has three wives.
As the wives and their husband trade anachronistic quips, Hwang never finds the right balance between sitcom-like comedy and a serious exploration of how Chinese assimilated western ideas and ideals. Leigh Silverman misdirects her cast to act like hip quipsters on today’s TV shows, further deemphasizing Hwang’s point.

The Piano Lesson (photo: Joan Marcus)

The Piano Lesson, on the other hand, is among the best in August Wilson’s 10-play cycle, set in different decades of the 20th century in Pittsburgh. A widow and her prodigal brother, who’s just returned from down South and up to shady dealings, butt heads over a family heirloom: an ornately-sculpted piano that their father gave his life for. Boy Willie wants to sell it to finance his purchase of farmland; Berniece wants to keep it, despite the family ghosts and blood that hover over it.
For three hours, Boy Willie and Berniece, her young daughter Maretha, their Uncle Doaker, Willie’s partner Lymon, musician friend Wining Boy and Reverend Avery—who’s in love with Berniece—wage a royal family battle in which their pasts literally creep up as ghosts that materialize in an abrupt ending that’s the sole blemish on an exhilarating drama with aspirations to Shakespearean tragedy. The innate musicality in Wilson’s writing—literalized here with sad, joyful songs played on the piano—reaches its apogee in extraordinary monologues that build to dramatic and emotional crescendos.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, a superb actor who has become a reliable director of Wilson’s work, corals this unwieldy masterwork on Michael Carnahan’s set that stunningly evokes the working-class existence of blacks in Pittsburgh, circa 1936. The director also coaxes grand, gloriously larger-than-life performances by his entire cast, led by Brandon J. Dierden’s charming but dangerous Boy Willie and Roslyn Ruff’s level-headed and deeply wounded Berniece. If there’s such a thing as don’t-miss theater in New York, this is it.

Emotional Creature (photo: Carol Rosegg)

Also at the Signature is the forgettable Emotional Creature, Eve Ensler’s flimsy 80-minute play that shows today’s complicated world for young women. The problem is that Ensler never settles on a satisfying way of presenting her material: opening with peppy singing and dancing by an energetic sextet of talented actresses, it awkwardly moves through tragic monologues by mistreated girls in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, which are interspersed with less-urgent problems of high-strung high-schoolers.
The kitchen-sink approach to this melting pot is further diminished by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder’s generic songs and dance moves, which recall the relentlessly cheery ‘70s TV show, Free to Be You and Me. Director Jo Bonney keeps things perky with videos and photos projected behind the women, but this mess of a show too clearly apes the messy lives of the young women it shows.
Scandalous

Neil Simon Theatre, 250 West 52ndStreet, New York, NY

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Studio 54, 254 West 54thStreet, New York, NY

Golden Child
The Piano Lesson
Emotional Creature

Signature Theatre, 480 West 42ndStreet, New York, NY

November '12 Digital Week III

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Sunday, 18 November 2012 10:00
Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Billy Bathgate/Blaze
(Mill Creek)
Robert Benton’s adaptation of Billy Bathgate, E.L. Doctorow’s vivid historical novel about 1920s New York organized crime, looks great but is dragged down by sleepwalking Dustin Hoffman as “godfather” Dutch Schultz, Nicole Kidman as his moll Drew and Loren Dean as Dutch’s protégé who has an affair with Drew.

Blaze, Ron Shelton’s lively biopic of the stripper who enthralled Louisiana Governor Earl Long, has a blazing performance by Paul Newman as Long and starmaking debut by Lolita Davidovich in the title role (she later became Shelton’s wife). Both movies have not-bad hi-def transfers.
Brave
(Disney)
Although this Pixar animated feature was a huge hit, it’s little more than another Disney flick with a brave young woman at its center.
Although there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s little that’s exciting or memorable, and the computerized animation—not nearly as good as classic hand-drawn animation—doesn’t help. The Blu-ray image is top-notch, both in 3-D and 2-D; extras include featurettes, extended scenes and a commentary.
Company
(Image)
Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical’s energetic 2011 New York Philharmonic revival has well-cast performers like Martha Plimpton, Stephen Colbert, Christina Hendricks, Anika Noni Rose and even Neil Patrick Harris, whose smugness is kept to a minimum.
Then there’s Patti Lupone, who gives the showstopper “The Ladies Who Lunch” its grandest ride since Elaine Stritch. The orchestra sounds extraordinary led by Paul Gemignani, and Lonny Price’s staging works well. The hi-def image and sound are crystal clear.
Objectified
(New Video)
Gary Hustwit, director of the visually lush chronicle of modern cities, Urbanized, made this equally fascinating 2009 design exploration.
Through interviews with designers and experts and showing inventions from toothbrushes to new-fangled tech gadgets, Hustwit provides an inventive overview of modern civilization marching forward. The Blu-ray image looks superb; extras include additional interviews.
Vamps
(Anchor Bay)
In Amy Heckerling’s tired vampire spoof, Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter play bloodsuckers navigating a wild, wooly new world.
Along with Heckerling’s game actresses—Ritter especially plays kooky far more charmingly than Zooey Deschanel—her movie also wastes Sigourney Weaver as a crazed vampiress and good comic actors Justin Kirk, Wally Shawn and Richard Lewis. The movie looks striking in hi-def.
The Watch
(Fox)
The least of this lame comedy’s problems is its pre-release tie to last spring’s Florida ‘neighborhood watch’ tragedy: worse are the combined non-talents of Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill and co-writer Seth Rogen to create this flimsy attempt at a raunchy, violent sci-fi spoof. Even Vince Vaughan (on autopilot) and his dry line readings can’t help.
Faring best are Rachel DeWitt as Stiller’s wife and Billy Crudup as a weird neighbor. The hi-def image is excellent; extras are deleted scenes, a gag reel and featurettes.
Weekend
(Criterion)
In 1967, Jean-Luc Godard’s apocalyptic fantasy about civilization’s end came out of that era’s political and social upheaval; in 2012, it’s as relevant as ever. Although the extended take of an endless automobile crash is still stunning, more astonishing is that Godard—the ultimate hit-or-miss artist—never falters in this seething attack on literally everything.
Raoul Coutard’s magnificent photography, with its mix of fantastically popping colors, shines on Criterion’s Blu-ray; extras include interviews with Coutard, actress Mireille Darc, actor Jean Yanne and assistant Claude Miller and a vintage featurette.
DVDs of the Week
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
(New Yorker)
In Marie Losier’s sympathetic portrait of a couple that hoped to—literally—merge as one (Genesis had several surgeries to look like Lady Jaye), a relationship that begins as lust turns to love and, finally, partners for life (cancer tragically killed Lady Jaye at age 39 in 2007).
Losier digs into what some might consider an aberrant lifestyle with compassion and understanding, and beautifully uses home movies and other valuable footage. Extras include interviews, outtakes and short films.
A Burning Hot Summer
(MPI)
Philippe Garrel has an undeserved reputation as one of France’s greatest directors with films like Regular Lovers and this stale, stilted account of a crazed young man (Garrel’s untalented son, Louis) whose unraveling marriage to a gorgeous movie star (Monica Bellucci) causes him to take his own life.
Missing from this dreary drama are any insights into his characters’ behavior; even the shimmering photography doesn’t help.
Corpo Celeste
(Film Movement)
Writer-director Alice Rohrwacher’s startling debut insightfully chronicles an adolescent girl’s difficulties at home and school. The film, set in southern Italy, is shot through with religious guilt that could smother anybody: as Marta prepares for her confirmation, she can’t handle the hypocrisies among adults and her peers.
Rohrwacher humorously presents Marta’s troubles without condescension and, coupled with Yle Vianello’s marvelously unaffected performance, creates a truthful comedy that explores teenage life in ways far removed from the sentimentality and cheap laughs of American movies and TV shows. German director Max Zahle’s short, Raju, is the lone extra.
Dark Horse
(Virgil Films)
Todd Solondz again purports to make an unflinching look at society’s ills, but actually makes yet another sitcom crammed with clueless caricatures indistinguishable from one another.
The casual racism and misogyny that mars his other films isn’t as overt here, but if your idea of a good time is seeing Chris Walken in stupid-looking shirts or Mia Farrow in a bad wig and glasses, then you may get more out of it than I did.
Half the Sky
(Docurama)
In this four-hour documentary, NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff and his wife Sheryl WuDunn recruit a half-dozen Hollywood actresses to explore the horrible conditions so many women around the world must deal with, even in the 21st century.
Eva Mendes travels to Sierra Leone, Meg Ryan goes to Cambodia, America Ferrera to India, Olivia Wilde to Kenya, Diane Lane to Somaliland and Gabrielle Union to Vietnam: their (and our) eyes are opened by other women fighting such reprehensibly regressive policies. Extras include extended interviews and scenes.
CDs of the Week
Janine Jansen: Prokofiev
(Decca)
Great violinists cut their teeth on Sergei Prokofiev’s first concerto, ever tuneful and buoyant, even if it’s frightfully difficult to play. Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, however, tackles the less well known if equally fiendish second concerto, dispatching it with such ease it seems she’s making up Prokofiev’s brilliantly articulated runs on the spot.
And, to show off the musical depths of Prokofiev—still grievously underrated, for he’s one of the 20th century’s greatest composers—Jansen also plays his Sonata for Two Violins (with Boris Brovstyn) and the exceedingly dark Violin Sonata, both chamber masterpieces.
Rolling Stones: Grrr!
(ABKCO)
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the self-styled “world’s greatest rock’n’roll band,” here are 50 of their biggest hits, from early tunes “Come On” and “Not Fade Away” to new rockers “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot,” which are better than anything they’ve done since 1981’s Tattoo You.
There are strange omissions—“She’s So Cold” doesn’t appear, but “She Was Hot” does—and some tunes are the edited radio versions. But there’s much good stuff: the sixteen songs on disc two, from “Jumping Jack Flash” to “Fool to Cry” (with “Wild Horses,” “Street Fighting Man” and “Angie” in between), are the Stones’ real greatest hits.

Movie Review: "Silver Linings Playbook" Scores

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Thursday, 15 November 2012 12:36
Written by Lloyd Carroll

Silver Linings Playbook Poster

Silver Linings Playbook
Written and Directed by David O. Russell
Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver

Silver Linings Playbook is not the easiest film to watch. I can’t think of a single film where the two lead characters suffer from deep psychological issues and yet we like and root for them throughout.

The film opens with Pat Solatano, Jr. (Bradley Cooper) getting ready to leave a Baltimore psychiatric hospital where he spent eight months there due to a court order because of an “incident.”

Midway through the film we learn that Pat came home in the middle of the day from the school where he and his wife Nikki works, to catch her screwing another teacher not in the bedroom but making love in a shower as his wedding song, Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amor,” is playing in the background. In a scene designed to draw comparisons to Psycho, Pat beats his rival and comes within a hair of murdering his wife’s paramour.

In spite of losing his wife, job, and home (he now lives with his parents played by Robert DeNiro and Jackie Weaver), Pat is surprisingly upbeat from his stint in Baltimore because he sincerely feels that he can win Nikki back (he’s still deeply in love with her), regain his job, and have exactly the same life that he had before “the incident.” He believes that he is a better person and looks for the positives (“silver linings’) in life. We quickly learn that Pat suffers from severe mood swings which are indicative of his being bi-polar, something that was not diagnosed for a good part of his life.

He also suffers from obsessive compulsiveness that displays itself through his maniacal exercise regiment and his voracious reading of great American novels. Nikki apparently wanted him to both lose weight and become more learned.

To help him get back to socializing, Pat’s friends, Ronnie (John Ortiz) and his wife Veronica (Julia Stiles), invite him to dinner where the other guest is Veronica’s unpredictable sister, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow who has been battling depression her entire life.

Like members of rival cults, Pat and Tiffany think that the other is crazy while they themselves are certain that they are relatively sane. It’s not until they discussing their psychotropics, as well as commiserating about the fact that each has a wildly successful and “normal” sibling, that they develop some rapprochement. Neither have them have any filters that block them from uttering their thoughts so volatility is palpable throughout this film.

Writer/director David O. Russell, who was the mastermind behind The Fighter, nails nearly all of the little details so perfectly that you forget that you are watching a movie and feel that you are eavesdropping on very real people.

Russell also brilliantly captures two of our national obsessions, pro football and dance competitions.

The Philadelphia Eagles are practically a religion in the City of Brotherly Love, something I am too well acquainted with. Pat’s father, Pat Sr. (De Niro in one of his better recent roles) is a bookie who would never better against his beloved “Birds.” He is banned from attending games at the Eagles’ stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, because he was always getting into fights. Watching the games on TV with Pat Jr. is a was of bonding for them. 

Tiffany loves to dance and her dream is to take part in a competition that is held during the holiday season at a swanky Center City hotel. Her late husband hated dancing and Pat feels the same way. He reluctantly agrees to be her partner only when she promises to deliver a letter from him to his wife who has a restraining order out on him.

A subtle plot point that Russell brilliantly explores is coming to grips with a relationship that is nothing more than a glorified crush and coming to grips with who is and isn’t right for you. Even though Pat is clearly an extreme individual, who among us hasn’t dreamt of winning back the affections of someone who dumped us by doing things that we believe will make us more desirable to them?

Bradley Cooper, who grew up in the Philly suburbs, shines in a very difficult role and shows that he is far more than that guy from The Hangover movies. Lawrence delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as well.

Silver Linings Playbook has plenty of silver linings for filmgoers.
      

NYC Theater Roundup: ‘Annie’ Returns to Broadway, ‘Sorry’ Off-Broadway

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Wednesday, 14 November 2012 20:00
Written by Kevin Filipski

Annie

Book by Thomas Meehan; music by Charles Strouse; lyrics by Martin Charnin

Directed by James Lapine; choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler

Performances through March 31, 2013

Sorry

Written and directed by Richard Nelson

Performances through November 25, 2012

If one musical is the poster girl for old-fashioned Broadway, it’sAnnie Joan Marcus Annie, a huge hit back in 1977 and now better known to people who’ve never seen the show for “Tomorrow” and “It’s a Hard Knock Life”: the latter sampled by Jay Z for his 1998 hit “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).”

Although John Huston’s 1982 movie version was a financial and artistic disaster, Annie remains, in its unpretentious way, one of our most charming family-friendly musicals. In James Lapine’s new Broadway staging—which tries too hard at times to bring a contemporary edge to its essentially sweet story of the little orphaned red-head and the billionaire she guilelessly tames—the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as sentiment trumps cynicism.

Lapine doesn’t hammer home parallels between the show’s Depression era that separates haves from have nots—with a hard-working Democratic president, FDR, trying to close the gap—and a similar situation obtaining today. Instead, he smartly concentrates on the relationship between Annie and Daddy Warbucks, brought to life in spot-on performances by newcomer Lilla Crawford, with her booming voice and refreshing uncutesy stage manner, and Australian Anthony Warlow, whose Warbucks is less a caricatured Koch brother than a lonely man who hopes that money can buy him love.

The supporting cast is led by an adorable mutt named Sunny as Annie’s beloved stray dog Sandy. A formidable troupe of young girls includes the criminally cute Emily Rosenfeld, who even outpaces her talented fellow orphans. Too bad that Katie Finneran provides another unimpressively blustery performance as Miss Hannigan, the hated head of the orphanage. In this usually foolproof comic role, Finneran gives it her all, which, as always, is both too much and not enough.

While Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography is merely serviceable—and at its best when the orphans are front and center—David Korins’ silhouetted sets of New York buildings and bridges and storybook recreation of Warbucks’ gilded mansion are inspired. Charles Strouse’s music, one of the last Broadway scores crammed with miraculously tuneful melodies, contains songs that are not merely hummable gems but are at the service of the story: their greatness lies in their utter simplicity, just like Annie.

Sorry Joan MarcusRichard Nelson, in his plays about the Apple family—That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad and now Sorry—has done the near-impossible for an American playwright. He writes about political matters without separating them from personal ones; in fact, he integrates them so well that we never feel we’re being preached or condescended to: in fact, these conversational plays make us feel we’re simply in the company of a family having uncommonly intelligent discussions at—in the case of Sorry—the breakfast table.

The Apples—sisters Barbara, Marian and Jane, and brother Richard—are together on Election Day 2012 to do two things: talk about what’s transpired in our country since Election Day 2010 (when Hopey Changey was set), notably how disappointing—if still hopeful—President Obama’s first term has been; and decide whether their beloved uncle Benjamin, suffering from the first stages of Alzheimer’s, should be taken to a nearby rest home, since it’s too difficult for Barbara and Marian to take care of him at home.

Nelson’s dialogue is pointed and poignant; after three of these plays, we have really gotten to know the Apples, and can shed tears or laugh along with their conversations about the state of our nation, the state of New York—Nelson’s script is up to date, mentioning the effects of Hurricane Sandy alongside our endless election cycle—and the state of their family.

Nelson’s smart, simple direction lets his five peerless performers—a sixth character, Jane’s boyfriend Tim, is off doing a play in Chicago (actor Shuler Hensley is actually starring in another off-Broadway play and was unavailable—he’s supposed to return for Nelson’s final Apple play)—shine in their compelling naturalness. Jay O. Sanders (Richard), Maryann Plunkett (Barbara), Laila Robins (Marian), J. Smith-Cameron (Jane) and Jon Devries (Benjamin) are so in tune with one another that it’s unfair to single out anyone: they combine for a remarkable ensemble performance as the Apple family.

If Richard Nelson wants to keep checking in on them indefinitely, I’ll go along for the ride.

Annie

Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway, New York, NY

http://anniethemusical.com

Sorry

The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY

http://publictheater.org

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  1. November '12 Digital Week II
  2. November '12 Digital Week I
  3. CD Reviews: Great Vocal Stars Complied on New Releases

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