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Off-Broadway Play Review—“Fat Ham” at the Public Theater

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 08 June 2022 23:19; Written by Kevin Filipski

Marcel Spears (Juicy) and Adrianna Mitchell (Opal) in Fat Ham (photo: Joan Marcus)

Fat Ham

Written by James Ijames

Directed by Saheem Ali

Performances through July 3, 2022

Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NY

publictheater.org

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Fat Ham, James Ijames’ brash riff on Hamlet, is set at a backyard barbecue at a middle-class Black home in North Carolina. The protagonist is Juicy, a young queer Black man mourning the recent death of his murderous father, Pap, as well as dealing with his confusion over the quick wedding of his mother, Tedra, and his uncle (and Pap’s brother), Rev.

So far, so familiar for anyone remotely versed in Shakespeare, but Ijames makes enough changes to well-worn plotlines and characters—Ophelia is no longer in love with the eponymous hero but instead is Opal, a lesbian friend of Juicy’s—to move his play onto its own dramatic path. So it’s strangely distancing that Fat Ham dances around Hamlet’s heavy emotional baggage instead of becoming something more compellingly, completely original.

For every witty bit repurposed from Shakespeare—like the amusing appearance of Juicy’s father’s ghost, imploring his son to avenge his death—there are moments echoing Saturday Night Live sketches, as when Rev says about his marinated smoked pork that “The secret’s in the rub” and Juicy turns to the audience to respond (wink wink, nudge nudge), “Aye, there’s the rub.” It’s too bad that such scattered “soliloquies” owe more to the extraneous horseplay of Central Park Shakespeare stagings than to the genius of Hamlet itself.

Also, there’s not really much sense of an aching loss, which gives Juicy’s plight even less urgency. Ijames’ updates include a showstopping karaoke scene of Tedra singing Crystal Waters’ “100% Pure Love” with Juicy, who then sings (no surprise) “Creep” by Radiohead, and a drag show finale of straitlaced soldier Larry (a kind of Laertes), who’s secretly in love with and outed by Juicy, and who finally is able to express his own truth. For all their audience pleasing, however, such moments come across as rather desperate instead of flowing naturally from the relationships onstage.

Saving Fat Ham is the verve with which it’s been staged by director Saheem Ali, its 90 minutes flying by quickly so that, whenever something is too on the nose, off we move onto something else. There’s also the uniformly fine cast led by the terrific Nikki Crawford as a funny, sexy Tedra and the excellent Marcel Spears, who assumes the mantle of both Shakespeare and Ijames to make Juicy more than a mere takeoff but a believably sympathetic traumatized son.

The real (if non-fatal) flaw of Fat Ham—much like the Danish prince himself—stems from its author not making up his mind to go in a daring new direction with his Hamlet reinterpretation.

The Bold Sounds of the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 08 June 2022 16:20; Written by Jack Angstreich

Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst & Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Photo by Chris Lee

At Carnegie Hall on the evening of Wednesday, June 1st, I had the privilege to attend an excellent concert featuring the superb musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra under the magisterial direction of Franz Welser-Möst, one of the finest contemporary conductors.

The program opened with an admirable performance of the Carnegie Hall premiere of the Simfonia No. 4, “Strands,” by African-American composer, George Walker, a modernist piece notable for its impressive orchestration. The outstanding virtuoso, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, then entered the stage for a sterling rendition of the early modern Polish composer Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, his penultimate work. The program annotator, Hugh Macdonald, describes “a new austerity” in the composer’s music after World War I as contrasted with the luxuriance of his earlier work, adding that, “His model was Béla Bartók, whose fascination with folklore chimed with Szymanowski’s strong sense of Polish identity.” Macdonald’s description of the composition is worth quoting:

Both [of Szymanowski’s] violin concertos are in one continuous movement, and the Second is in two parts, divided by the cadenza. The first part makes persistent use of a theme that circles closely around itself, gently lyrical, with two broad passages for the orchestra alone. The second part, after the cadenza, introduces the folk element and a strong suggestion of peasant dance.

Yet Szymanowski’s natural tendency toward rapturous lyricism is never far from view. Striking too is his fondness for the extreme range of orchestral sound, from the highest to the lowest.

It should be added that there is nonetheless at times still a certain lushness in the deployment of the strings here and there are lively, melodic passages in the first part. Here too, the orchestral scoring is masterful. The music reached its apotheosis in the ebullient, closing section. The artists received a standing ovation.

The highlight of the evening, however, was the second half of the concert, a brilliant account of Franz Schubert’s magnificent Symphony No. 9, the “Great”—indeed this may have been the most rewarding performance of this incomparable work that I have yet heard in a concert hall. The extraordinaryAndanteintroduction to the first movement is followed by the enchanting, often uncannily Mendelssohnian Allegro—it evokes especially the “Italian” Symphony. There is an intensity of emotion here that often both recalls the mature music of Ludwig van Beethoven—the composer’s idol—whoseethosis a strong presence throughout the work, but also forecasts the expressive Romanticism of Robert Schumann or Johannes Brahms. The movement built to a thrilling conclusion.

The slow movement also seems to remarkably and brilliantly ventriloquize Beethoven for much of its length while the ensuing, cheerful Scherzo has some premonitory moments, even as its Trio section is the epitome of classicism. And, despite its exuberant triumphalism, the entrancing finale is not without its mysterious depths. The artists earned much deserved, enthusiastic applause.

I look forward to the return of these exquisite musicians to a local stage.

June '22 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 01 June 2022 19:47; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

A Chiara

(Neon)

In Jonas Carpignano’s insightful and unpredictable character study, Swamy Rotolo is marvelous as a teenager separated from her family and put in foster care after she gets a little too nosy looking into her father’s disappearance in the Mafia-run Calabria area of Italy.

Carpignano has a subtle and sympathetic touch, which extends from the illuminating use of sound to the persuasive and expressive performance of Rotolo, one of many nonprofessionals (including several of her family members) that the director has cast to give his exploration of a girl’s coming of age the authenticity and clarity it needs.

Double Threat

(VMI Releasing)

This routine action flick follows Jimmy, a meek bystander who ends up driving Natasha, who was behind the counter of a convenience store he happened to be in when it was being robbed—she blasted both robbers and is now running from her ex-fiancé and all the firepower his shady rich father can muster.

Although there are no surprises in its 90 minutes, there’s one reason to watch Shane Stanley’s derivative “lovers on the lam” drama: Danielle C. Ryan, who makes the split-personality heroine Nat/Tasha into someone worthy of a better movie. She’s charming, amusing and even credible in a credulous role.

Fanny—The Right to Rock

(Crave)

I thought I knew my classic rock, but the band Fanny—an all-female hard-rock group that released albums and toured in the early ‘70s to great acclaim but relative popular indifference—was one I knew nothing about, so happily, Bobbi Jo Hart’s documentary sets things right by chronicling the women’s long-ago career, their comeback and how those in the know (David Bowie, for one) hyped their greatness years later.

The Sacramento-based band’s energetic tunes are showcased in vintage video and audio clips; there’s also new material the latest incarnation has put together as well as a healthy dose of archival and new interviews that provide an intimate glimpse at a band more rock fans should know about.

Miracle

(Film Movement)

Romanian director Bogdan George Apetri’s blistering drama tells two related stories: first, we follow a novice nun who leaves the safety of her convent to go to the hospital but who is sexually assaulted by her cab driver; in the second, a police investigator attempts to solve the case.

Aperti’s drama might seem too much of a good thing as it follows the no-nonsense, real-time blueprint of other Romanian imports, but the subtle direction, authentic atmosphere and casually shocking visuals make this one of the most original films in recent memory.

Vengeance Is Mine

(Film Desk)

Michael Roemer’s barely-seen 1984 melodrama stars Brooke Adams—a woefully underused actress known for her memorable supporting roles in 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Days of Heaven—as a woman returning to her hometown to escape her own personal problems but who finds herself immersed in those of her family’s neighbors, particularly an estranged couple (Trish Van Devere, Jon De Vries) and their young daughter (Ari Meyers).

Diffuse and extremely rough around the edges. Roemer’s film is nearly amateurish at times, but the strength of the acting—mainly van Devere and Adams, who gives a searing portrayal—makes this worth a look.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

The Police Around the World—Restored and Expanded

(Mercury)

One of the holy grails for Police fans, this film documenting the group’s first world tour in 1979 and 1980 has finally been restored and upgraded to hi-def. Of the various release formats, I have the Blu-ray/CD version, so the documentary itself looks terrific and showcases the band at its most energetic onstage and off, a couple of years before Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland became the world’s biggest band—bonus Blu-ray performances comprise four complete songs not included in the film, while the CD has live performances of 12 songs from the tour.

“Expanded” is a misnomer, however—the performance of “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” has been excised from the film, probably because Sting is embarrassed that he threatened a zealous French fan.

Row 19

(Go Well USA)

Russian director Alexander Babaev’s horror movie is pretty ruthless to its heroine, the lone survivor of an airplane crash as a child who now brings her own young daughter onboard with her for a flight that may or may not be a replay of that fateful one from 20 years ago.

It’s a scant 78 minutes, so there’s no fat, but in this case the leanness of the narrative doesn’t really help: there’s no reason this intelligent, independent and capable woman (especially as played by Svetlana Ivanova) should get on this plane in this weather with all the obvious warning signs; she does so only so Babaev can provide a painfully blatant twist ending. There’s a sharp hi-def transfer.

Concert Review—Sandra Bernhard at City Winery, NYC

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 31 May 2022 14:36; Written by Kevin Filipski

Sandra Bernhard

May 24, 2022

City Winery, New York City

citywinery.com

Sandra Bernhard at City Winery

Since I first saw Sandra Bernhard, in 1984 at Buffalo's old Tralfamadore Café (now the Tralf Music Hall), she has used her sardonic wit and pop savvy to comment knowingly and hilariously on our deadened celebrity culture. Her concert last week at City Winery in Manhattan proved that, nearly four decades later, Bernhard has lost none of her unique insights into what is wrong with…well, everything.

Of course, Bernhard is a terrific singer as well, always choosing the perfect songs that both underscore her humor and work well musically. Her City Winery opener, “Make Your Own Kind of Music”—a minor hit for Mama Cass in 1969—stated Bernhard’s case from the start as an original and always honest performer.

Bernhard doesn’t tell jokes, of course, but colorful anecdotes of the absurdities that permeate her life—and, by extension, ours. The pandemic hit the resident of the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan quite hard (as anyone who listens to her weekly Sirius show, Sandyland, can attest), so listening to her describing life during lockdown is both painful and bracingly funny.

For those of us who were in attendance at her comeback show last August (also at City Winery), some of these COVID tales were familiar, but she always adds the kind of telling details that mark her genius as a storyteller.

For 90 minutes, Bernhard alternated her perfectly pitched stories with a selection of tunes performed with her crack band, led by pianist and music director Mitch Kaplan, from the Stone Poneys’ “Different Drum” and Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” to LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” and Rod Stewart’s “Mandolin Wind.”

In between were her priceless observations, like recounting this Chelsea rooftop conversation: “I’m writing the definitive biography of Chopin”—“Sean Penn? I love Sean Penn!”

In this fraught moment in our history, after the Buffalo and Texas massacres and with the Supreme Court about to return women to the pre-Roe vs. Wade dark ages, Bernard ended her show with her soulful take on Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.”

It was interspersed with musings about the direction of our country that she witnessed on a recent drive to and from a performance in Philadelphia. “We found pieces of America—not free—barely brave,” she said, closing with the incisive comment, “If you find America, let me know where it is.”

Reviews

Off-Broadway Play Review—“Fat Ham” at the Public Theater

The Bold Sounds of the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

June '22 Digital Week I

Concert Review—Sandra Bernhard at City Winery, NYC

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