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NYC Theater Roundup: Vidal's "Man" Revisited; Foote's "TX"; Harrelson's "Bullet"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 18 August 2012 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
Starring James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, Cybill Shepherd, John Stamos, Jefferson Mays, Mark Blum, Angela Lansbury, Kristin Davis
Written by Gore Vidal; directed by Michael Wilson
Harrison, TX
Starring Hallie Foote, Jayne Houdyshell, Devon Abner, Mary Bacon, Jeremy Bobb, Alexander Cendense, Andrea Lynn Green, Evan Jonigkeit, Jenny Dare Paulin
Written by Horton Foote; directed by Pam Mackinnon
Bullet for Adolf
Starring Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brandon Coffey, David Coomber, Shamika Cotton, Shannon Garland, Lee Osorio, Tyler Jacob Rollinson, Nick Wyman
Written by Woody Harrelson and Frankie Hyman; directed by Woody Harrelson
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| Shepherd, Larroquette in The Best Man (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Gore Vidal’s recent death makes seeing his best play, The Best Man, a must during the last weeks of its Broadway run. Despite his reputation as a sardonic, unapologetic liberal (which drove opponents like Norman Mailer and William Buckley batty), The Best Man is a remarkably evenhanded, hilarious and still-relevant political expose that shows how little American electioneering has changed since 1960.
But that’s not the only reason to see Michael Wilson’s superlative staging, which I caught when it opened in the spring. Many of the main roles have new actors who are as good as if not better than the originals. John Stamos, as conservative candidate Senator Joseph Cantwell, has the perfect mix of cocksure smugness to go up against his opponent, John Laroquette’s impeccably decent Secretary of State William Russell. Both candidates’ wives are new: Kristin Davis capably shows that Cantwell’s wife Mabel can be as amusingly bimboish as a brunette as Kerry Butler was as a blonde; Cybill Shepherd has taken over Alice, Russell’s wife, from Candice Bergen, and the result is a wash, the part snugly fitting both of their personas.
As Dick Jensen, Russell’s campaign manager, Mark Blum is less subdued than Michael McKean was, which makes more sense as the tense candidates’ stand-off plays out at the convention. As the scene-stealing Sue-Ellen Gamadge, the women’s organization leader both men are courting, Elizabeth Ashley has a grand old time hamming it up even more boisterously than Angela Lansbury did. And still towering above all is holdover James Earl Jones, whose former President Hockstader shouldn’t work: it’s too oversized a portrayal to fit with what’s essentially a realistic ensemble. But Jones’ unerring instincts make this ex-president appropriately larger than life and at the same time give The Best Man its comic and human pulse.
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| Green, Foote in Harrison, TX (photo: James Leynse) |
Horton Foote, who died in 2009 just shy of his 93rd birthday, was a genteel gentleman, which shows in his plays: common people are given the decency and respect they deserve. The result, over a huge number of plays in an astonishingly prolific career, might be a certain sameness, but at the same time, the modesty on display has its own reward as a valid artistic purpose.
Harrison, TX, comprising three one-act Foote plays, is a case in point: with each set in the fictional title town that stands in for Foote’s own Texan hometown (Wharton), the format works well for these slight but shrewd portraits of regular folk acting a bit irregularly.
Harrison, TX opens with Blind Date, where an interfering aunt tries to get her visiting young niece to act like a lady when a gentleman caller arrives with amusingly disastrous results; The One-Armed Man is a short, tense drama about a former mill employee who lost his arm in a workplace accident who comes to call, armed with a gun, on his former boss; and The Midnight Caller combines Date’s lightness and Man’s darkness for a tragicomic soap opera about a jilted man who drunkenly screams for his ex-girl outside the boarding house where she lives every night, affecting her friendships with the other boarders and her relationship with a new beau.
Foote’s pen, as always, draws these people assuredly and humanely, resulting in an enervating visit to small-town America sans condescension. Pam Mackinnon directs with sure rhythm and pacing; Marion Williams’ set feels a little cramped, especially in the third play, which needs opening up, but overall it conveys a proper small town atmosphere. The performers are up to the task, especially Foote’s daughter Hallie, who appears in the first and last plays, as does the delightful Andrea Lynn Green. The others fill their roles well (excepting Jayne Houdyshell, who doesn’t fit place or period), and the late master would have been pleased.
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| Bullet for Adolf (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
Bullet for Adolf is one of the biggest onstage fiascos in awhile: co-writers Woody Harrelson (who also directed) and Frankie Hyman mined their own friendship to come up with this ludicrous, disjointed and episodic play that meanders to no discernible point.
The non-story introduces several people over the course of a few summer days in hot Houston in 1983, and when a luger used in a Hitler assassination attempt goes missing (don’t ask), they try to discover who did it. The problem is that the characters are so sketchy that it’s hard to care what happens to them. Although jokes are tossed out—mostly off-color, even intentionally offensive—nothing is very funny, even though Harrelson and Hyman obviously think their offbeat characters are loveable losers.
Harrelson’s chief directorial contribution is to fill time between scenes with loud early 80s pop (Prince, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins) and accompanying video footage—MTV, President Reagan, the space shuttle, Beirut—which makes no commentary on anything happening onstage. The actors, bless their hearts, give it their all, but they can’t make this 2-1/2 hour self-indulgence more than risible.
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
Performances began March 6, 2012; closes September 9
Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, New York, NY
Harrison, TX
Performances began July 24, 2012; opened August 14; closes September 15
Primary Stages @ 59 E 59 Theatre, New York, NY
Bullet for Adolf
Performances began July 19, 2012; opened August 8; closes September 9
New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street; New York, NY
Film Review: "The Campaign" -- Cheap Shots Hit Too Close To Home
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:31
- Written by Marion DS Dreyfus
The Campaign
Directed by Jay Roach
Starring Will Ferrel, Zach Galifianakis and Jason Sudeikis
“War has rules. Mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules.”
-- Presidential Candidate Ross Perot, 1988
This little laugh-fest could not have come at a better time. The Campaign is offered as a satire, with Will Ferrell as Cam Brady, the Dem blowhard with “strong” hair, and Zach Galifianakis as weirdo nudnik Marty Huggins, a tour guide in a city with three tourists who gets shanghaied into being Cam’s Republican opponent.
When you take that into consideration along with those wacked-out trailers plugging this com-dom (dumb comedy; dictionary MDSD, 2012 edition) you really shouldn’t expect Ingmar Bergman.
Director Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers, Recount, Game Change -- all films notable for their impeccable liberal mindsets) says that he thinks “comedy is the best response to politics these days.” Sure. Except that comedy is usually relief, while politics hangs around for four deadly years of unemployment, turmoil, bailouts, spills, unholy debt, and all-around craziness that does not go away after you guzzle your Slurpee.
But despite the fact that this raunchy (with periodic nudity and sewer verbiage; this is by no means a kid’s movie) comedy has you on a hilarity tripwire that goes off every few minutes, the two politicos and their wranglers (an excellent Dylan McDermott as a more feral and arguably more intelligent David Axelrod doppelganger; and SNL’s Jason Sudeikis as Cam Brady’s somewhat ineffectual wingman) are almost not satirical.
Our actual live political ads and theatrics, popping off daily, almost beggar the film. Galifianakis surprises in keeping in character as a mannered, dufus-sy bumpkin with decent instincts and all-American heart. Ferrell is lunatic throughout.
The town of 'Hammond, S. Carolina,' is used to great effect, as the well-meaning schmendrik Marty is dragooned into being a cardboard candidate by Machiavellian makhers played by John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd—these two skullduggish types playing the Motch brothers, a less than subtle parody of the the real-life Koch Brothers. I found this satirization un-funny as the Koch Brothers are undoubtedly successful self-starters and risk-takers.
We are always aware that the dirty tricks and antics in this film are just a skootch over the line, while the mindset is firmly the same as that which informs so many productions, like the new TV series by veteran prize-winning but bilious Aaron Sorkin, Newsroom, gaggingly unwatchable, so nauseatingly and infuriatingly smugly partisan.
Also making solid appearances are Brian Cox, as the mogul Huggins father who can’t stand his prissy, disappointing simpleton of a son. Cox earns his many awards, and was recently named by the UK Film Council as one of the Top 10 powerful British actors in film today.
Sarah Baker is hilarious, as Mitzi, the sweet-as-pie Huggins wife who strays when tempted by the scheming Cam Brady. Katherine LaNasa, as Rose Brady, is a pic-perfect political-statuette candidate wife in camera range only as long as the money is around.
After back to back viewings of The Bourne Legacy, then The Dark Knight Rises, then yummy tummy Colin Farrell with evil but gorgeous Kate Beckinsale in Total Recall--it was a relief to laugh for a couple of hours, even if the underpinnings were not what will put this country to rights come another four months.
Funny that all the grown-up adventurous high-flying flicks have fewer naughty segments than the comedy does. The three barnburners are, pretty much, as chaste as pre-Code TV, while the giggler-howler has offensive language, considerable nudity, and bad taste everywhere your eyes land.
Ironically, funny as this "Campaign" is, it’s almost dull compared to what’s going on in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and the rest of the ‘swing’ set.
Onstage: 'Bring It On' Leaps Off the Screen; 'Into the Woods' in the Park; Irish Rep's "New Girl'
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 13 August 2012 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Bring It On
Starring Taylor Louderman, Adrienne Warren, Ryann Redmond, Elle McLemore, Kate Rockwell
Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda; lyrics by Miranda & Amanda Green
Book by Chris Whitty; choreographed and directed by Andy Blankenbuehler
Into the Woods
Starring Amy Adams, Jamie Mueller, Donna Murphy, Denis O’Hare, Chip Zien
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lupine
Directed by Timothy Sheader, co-directed by Liam Steel
New Girl in Town
Starring Cliff Bemis, Patrick Cummings, Danielle Ferland, Margaret Loesser Robinson
Music and lyrics by Bob Merrill; book by George Abbott
Choreographed by Barry McNabb; directed by Charlotte Moore
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| Bring It On (photo: Chris Schwartz) |
Loosely based on the 2000 cheerleading movie, Bring It On is leaps and bounds (and tumbles and backflips) ahead of its cinematic predecessor, and the result is a rare show that thrills its target audience of young women and teens at the same time it’s a fun two-plus hours for everybody else.
Jeff Whitty’s book smartly dispenses with most of the movie’s plot, even if the story still turns on the battle royal between Truman High’s snooty upper-class squad against Jackson High’s inner-city street crew. Whitty has also written clusters of funny lines which happily eschew the rancid campiness that crushed that other recent gymnasium musical, the gimcrack Lysistrata Jones.
The characters are at least lively caricatures, and the unknown youthful cast comes up aces: Taylor Louderman as the gangly, likeable heroine, Campbell; Kate Rockwell, a scintillating find as Skylar, the beautiful, Barbie-perfect cheerleader; Elle McLemore, as the evil Eva, with formidable pipes inside her Kristin Chenoweth-petite frame; Ryann Redmond as the amusingly frumpy wanna-be cheerleader relegated to mascot; Adrienne Warren as the foxy head of the Jackson High crew; and Gregory Haney in a bravura performance as the cross-dressing student named La Cieniega.
The rather schizophrenic score welds Tom Kitt’s standard-issue big ballads and belters to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s more with-it soulful rap tunes; but, coupled to Miranda and Amanda Green’s clever lyrics, the songs mirror how these kids blow up petty issues to tragically Shakespearean heights. David Korins’ fluidly mobile set and Jason Lyons’ flashy lighting abet Andrew Blankenbeuer’s brisk direction and outstanding choreography, which keeps Bring It On moving, onward and upward: the athleticism on display, coupled with the unrivaled artistry, may win him another Tony.
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| O'Hare and Adams in Into the Woods (photo: Joan Marcus) |
For this summer’s second Central Park entry, the Public Theater chose another foliage show: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, the 1987 musical that’s been on Broadway twice already, which returns in a satisfying staging that takes advantage of the natural beauty of the Delacorte Theater surrounding than As You Like It did.
Into the Woods problematically combines several fairy tales, both on their own terms and as a psychologically “modern” look at characters like Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, the Baker and the Baker’s Wife, among others. If Sondheim’s songs—which are not up to his considerable best—have their bright moments, most notably the final “Children Will Listen,” Lapine’s less-clever-than-it-thinks-it-is book dominates the longish show.
Co-directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel, the visually arresting Central Park staging includes changes (the narrator is a young boy rather than an older man, for instance) that don’t make complete sense. John Lee Beatty and Soutra Gilmour’s set design delightfully complements the park’s real “woods,” while Rachael Canning’s uneven puppetry effects reach their zenith when the splendidly-wrought giantess (voiced menacingly by Glenn Close) suddenly appears. Sondheim’s always elegant score is adroitly performed, in Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations, under Paul Gemignani’s direction.
In a capable cast, only Donna Murphy, who’s having a blast playing the Witch, is totally in her element with a vocally ravishing performance. Amy Adams’s pleasing singing voice and comedic adeptness auger well for a light-touch Baker’s Wife, but Denis O’Hare’s meager vocal resources and dour tone trip up the Baker. Jessie Mueller is a bewitchingly sung Cinderella, Ivan Hernandez and Paris Remillard are a stentorian pair of Princes and Tess Soltau a sweet-voiced Rapunzel. But it’s too bad that Sarah Stiles is mordant to the point of irritation as Little Red Riding Hood—so of course she’s an audience favorite.
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| New Girl in Town (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
Turning Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie into a frothy musical took daring by composer-lyricist Bob Merrill and book writer George Abbott, who collaborated on 1957 Broadway hit New Girl in Town. Originally a vehicle for Gwen Vernon—with choreography by an up-and-comer named Bob Fosse—the show has been revived,amiably if undistinguishedly, by the Irish Rep, whose artistic director, Charlotte Moore, directed.
O’Neill’s melodrama—interesting but not the equal of masterworks The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey into Night—has become a romantic comedy with some of O’Neill’s tragic touches remaining; but in the flimsy context, they make less sense. Luckily for Moore and her cast, the tuneful songs are taken by leads who sing better than they act. Margaret Loesser Robinson’s Anna has a marvelous voice and musical bearing making up for her shortfall in the acting department, while Patrick Cummings’ Matt—more than a handsome face—equals her in the pipes department, but he’s otherwise too robotic.
If New Girl in Town founders in the no-man’s-land between O’Neill’s tragic inclination and Merrill and Abbott’s Broadway sensibility, it’s worth seeing all the same.
Bring It On
Performances began July 12; opened August 1
St. James theatre, 246 West 44th Street, New York, NY
Into the Woods
Performances began July 24; opened August 9; closes September 1
Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York, NY
New Girl in Town
Performances began July 18; opened July 26; closes September 14
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York, NY
August '12 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 12 August 2012 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blue Like Jazz
(Lionsgate)
Based on Donald Miller’s memoir, this intermittently interesting drama dramatizes how a sheltered Texas Southern Baptist deals with attending a Portland liberal college. Although much of what happens is obvious (he sees that everyone’s a hypocrite, even his pious mother), there’s a refreshing candor and lack of condescension and smugness: despite their faults, everyone has redeemable features.
The strong cast, director Steve Taylor and cowriters Miller, Taylor and Ben Pearson don’t hit viewers over the head with their clichés. The hi-def image is very good; extras include a commentary, making-of featurette, deleted scenes and other featurette.
Full Metal Jacket
(Warners)
Stanley Kubrick’s penultimate film—made a dozen years before his death in 1999—is a dense, personal chronicle of young men being transformed into a military fighting machine. With Vietnam as a backdrop, Kubrick shoots many unforgettable images of that disastrous war, like Hue City and the Tet Offensive, but his main interest lies in the philosophical underpinnings of the psychological damage the military apparatus inflicts.
The first half’s clinical, detached look at basic training is exploded by the second half, in which boot camp’s precision degenerates into helter-skelter horrors on the battlefield. The Blu-ray image is excellent; extras include a commentary, featurette and bonus DVD, an hour-long documentary about the master’s voluminous research, Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes.
(Sony)
This sci-fi flick, set in the year 2079, has a space prison colony being overrun by prisoners—and the president’s daughter is a hostage. Enter a gnarly hero who must go in and save her. There’s no wasting time on anything other than action sequences—which are well done—so, by the time one thinks about the silliness of the premise, the movie’s over.
It’s co-directed by Stephen Saint Leger and James Mather (two people were needed to helm this?), both disciples of Luc Besson, the empty-spectacle auteur, who is one of the producers. The movie looks first-rate on Blu; extras include making-of featurettes.
(Magnolia)
Kevin McDonald’s documentary about late, great reggae superstar Bob Marley may have been produced by family and friends of the singer, but this is no hagiography. Instead, over 145 minutes, the measure of the man and artist (who died at age 36 in 1981 of cancer) is taken, through interviews with wife Rita, girlfriend Cindy Breakspeare, members of his band the Wailers and many others who knew him.
With excellent vintage video footage and photographs, along with audio interviews with the man himself, Marley is a hard-hitting, personal bio. The image, while soft at times, has appropriate grain; extras include additional interviews, MacDonald and Ziggy Marley’s commentary.
(Criterion)
The Dardenne brothers have become the darlings of the international festival circuit over the past 15 years, even if their recent films (The Son, The Kid with a Bike) are pale imitations of their earlier gems; their first two features are on Blu-ray thanks to the Criterion Collection.
1996’s La Promesse and 1999’s Rosetta are two sides of the same coin, seen through their teenage protagonists’ eyes: the Dardennes present moral dilemmas in the guise of simply plotted stories that emphasize character over action. Criterion’s impeccable hi-def transfers highlight their gritty handheld camerawork; extras include Dardenne interviews and new interviews with the films’ principal actors.
(Kino)
Derek Jarman’s early films show painfully slow growth. 1976’s Sebastiane, a biopic of the crucified saint, is a first feature (co-directed with Paul Humfress) whose ragged amateurishness shows, spoken Latin notwithstanding, while 1979’s The Tempest is a draggy Shakespeare adaptation with clever moments.
Jarman was still finding his way; it wasn’t until 1986’s Caravaggio that he finally made a fully-formed feature. The 16mm prints of both films, upgraded to Blu-ray, allow a minimal advance in graininess and sharpness; Tempest extras comprise three Jarman short films.
Casa de mi Padre
(Lionsgate)
“From the gringos who brought you Anchorman” is the tagline for this inoffensive but insubstantial spoof that might have worked as a five-minute SNL skit. Will Farrell gamely speaks Spanish, but being Mexican is beyond him; stellar support comes from Gael Garcia Bernal and gorgeous Genesis Rodriguez, who between this and Man on a Ledge starts off her movie career with a bang.
But the movie remains in a sort of suspended animation between amiable parody and Farrell’s usual stoopid shtick. Extras include a commentary, interview, making-of featurette, deleted scenes and music video.
(CJ Entertainment)
These thrillers are examples of Korean hit-or-miss genre flicks. Hindsight is a too-clever evocation of the old “boy meets gal, gal turns out to be hired killer” trope that was done better in Prizzi’s Honor. The performers are game, but they’re sunk by a soggy script.
However, No Mercy is a tautly chilling cop drama with incisively drawn characters that keep one watching, even if it goes on for an overlong two hours. Extras include interviews and featurettes.
(e one)
The distinctive hand-drawn animation of French director Jacques-Remy Girerd highlights this environmentally conscious feature that parallels the great films of Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki.
While not as profound or visually brilliant as Miyazaki’s Ponyo or Spirited Away, Mia has an offhand charm that make it watchable for the entire family. It would have been nice to have the original French language track; extras include a Girerd interview and making-of featurette.
(Cinema Libre)
Brian Malone’s documentary attempts to even-handedly dissect our damaged political system, but like Jon Stewart’s 2010 D.C. rally, it pretends that the right-wing noise machine and less truculent left-wing side are equal, when they obviously aren’t.
Still, there’s valuable info and insight gleaned from talking heads on both sides of the aisle—including former Senator Alan Simpson, who gets directly to the heart of today’s madness—and, looking closely at footage from tea party rallies, it’s obvious that the right is the harbinger of this mess; an impotent left is the reason why there’s a stalemate instead of true progressive policies.
(Acorn)
The Nazi sinking of the British passenger ship Laconia in 1942 is well-known in England but not here: but this superbly scripted and directed thriller about what happened before, during and after one of the most heinous actions of the war by either side should fill in the blanks for interested viewers.
Marvelous physical trappings notwithstanding (and unavoidable soap opera qualities to the various stories), it’s the excellent acting by the likes of Brian Cox, Lindsay Duncan and Franka Potente to bring a human dimension to an epic survival tale. The lone extra is a half-hour doc about actual survivors’ stories.
Jean Francaix: Wind Chamber Music
(BIS)
Belgian composer Jean Francaix may have been a weird stickler about the pronunciation of his name (Fran-SEX, believe it or not), but his attractive and immensely tuneful music belies his offbeat personality.
This disc of four of his wind chamber music works includes two wind quintets, a wind quartet and a Divertissement, all supremely confident and wonderfully beguiling. The Bergen Woodwind Quartet’s performances underscore Francaix’s sonic richness.
(Supraphon)
To most, Czech operas comprise Smetana’s The Bartered Bride and Dvorak’s Rusalka. This 1980 recording of another Smetana opera, this one based on Czech history, displays a wide-ranging musical palette encompassing chorales, marches and Wagner-like heaviness.
This Brno State Opera performance, conducted by Vaclav Smetacek, is appropriately dramatic, and magnificent Czech singers like Vilem Pribyl, Vaclev Zitek and Eva Depoltova powerfully convey its musical might.
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