this week in broadway

ORPHANS

Phillip (Tom Sturridge), Treat (Ben Foster), and Harold (Alec Baldwin) form a rather unique pseudo-family in ORPHANS (photo by Joan Marcus)

Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 19, $67-$132
www.orphansonbroadway.com

When petty thief Treat (Ben Foster) lures home businessman Harold (Alec Baldwin), he gets more than he bargained for in the energetic Broadway debut of Lyle Kessler’s 1983 play, Orphans. Treat has turned to a life of crime in order to take care of himself and his developmentally disabled younger brother, Phillip (Tom Sturridge), in their run-down house in North Philadelphia. Treat, who takes pleasure in wielding a knife, ties the passed-out Harold to a chair and tells Phillip to watch him while the older brother goes out to try to collect a ransom for his kidnap victim. Phillip, who has a thing for mayonnaise, canned tuna, and a woman’s red shoe, can’t leave the house because of allergies that could potentially kill him. But inside he’s like a playful caged animal, leaping across John Lee Beatty’s set like a feral cat, from stairs to couch to windowsill and back again. Meanwhile, when he comes to, Phillip is nonplussed at having been captured, speaking eloquently about admiring the Dead End Kids and remembering his difficult childhood as an orphan, just like Treat and Phillip. Soon he’s serving as a surrogate father figure, at first enraging Treat while intriguing Phillip, leading to a surprise shift in the power dynamic.

Orphans is a showcase for the trio of actors; the original L.A. production thirty years ago starred Joe Pantoliano, Lane Smith, and Paul Leiber, while the 1985 Steppenwolf version boasted Gary Sinise directing John Mahoney, Terry Kinney, and Kevin Anderson, and Alan J. Pakula’s 1987 film featured Albert Finney, Matthew Modine, and Anderson. For this Great White Way edition, Foster (3:10 to Yuma, The Messenger), in his Broadway debut, is solid as the ultraserious Treat, who will do whatever it takes to protect Phillip, while Baldwin has a field day as Harold, part Leo Gorcey, part Huntz Hall, part Humphrey Bogart as he coolly and calmly handles what should be a life-threatening situation, instead seeing it as an opportunity. But it’s Sturridge (Being Julia, On the Road) who steals the show with his mesmerizing, acrobatic performance as a trapped man-child ready to burst free. Director Daniel Sullivan (Prelude to a Kiss, The Substance of Fire) injects a kind of punk-rock ferocity into the Pinteresque proceedings as he weaves together Treat’s intense rage, Phillip’s sense of wonder, and Harold’s absurdist ramblings on human existence. Orphans is a captivating, if unusual and offbeat, dark comedy that thrills from start to finish.

THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES

Julie (Jessica Hecht), Jeff (Jeremy Shamos), and Faye (Judith Light) share a Christmas toast in THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 16, $67-$120
www.theassembledpartiesbroadway.com

Throughout Richard Greenberg’s splendid new play, The Assembled Parties, characters comment on how easy it is to get lost in the Bascovs’ fourteen-room Upper West Side apartment. It is also easy for the audience to get lost in Greenberg’s compelling story and well-drawn characters as the Jewish clan celebrates Christmas first in 1980, then twenty years later, with things having substantially changed. Jessica Hecht (A View from the Bridge, After the Fall) is captivating as the family matriarch, Julie, speaking in an elegant, drawn-out voice that instantly reveals her character’s unique take on the world. As the play opens, she is joined by Jeff (Jeremy Shamos), her son Scotty’s (Jake Silberman) college friend, who appears smitten with her as he helps chop vegetables in the kitchen. Soon Julie’s older sister, Faye (Judith Light), arrives, with her gruff husband, Mort (Mark Blum), and their somewhat simple daughter, Shelley (Lauren Blumenfeld). “What is all this goyisha hazarai?” Faye declares upon seeing the spread in the living room, firmly establishing her character in a mere six words. As Santo Loquasto’s superb revolving set roams from room to room (to room to room), Faye tries to set Jeff up with Shelley; Jeff throws around a basketball with Scotty while discussing Scotty’s gorgeous, unseen girlfriend; Faye demands a pill from Julie to help her get through the evening; Jeff can’t break free of the telephone-umbilical cord, obsessed with calling his mother; and Mort has quite a surprise for Julie’s husband, Ben (Jonathan Walker). “God is bogus,” Julie says over dinner, “and religion a scourge. Still, I believe in something, though I’m not sure what.”

Twenty years later, things are vastly different, the only constant being Jeff’s unending dedication to Julie. Although so much of the story is built around Julie and her Jewish family, the centerpiece of the story is really Jeff, who serves as the onstage proxy for the audience. He interacts with all the characters but often does so from an observational distance, so glad to be among such unique and intriguing people. The audience is likely to feel the same way, glad to be among such unique and intriguing characters in Greenberg’s highly entertaining and extremely clever play.

THE NANCE

Nathan Lane is devilishly delightful as a burlesque performer in THE NANCE (photo by Joan Marcus)

Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Through June 17, $37- $132
www.lct.org

As Douglas Carter Beane’s enjoyable new play, The Nance, opens, Chauncey (Nathan Lane) is sitting in a Greenwich Village Automat, looking for someone to go home with. He sets his sights on an attractive young man, Ned (Jonny Orsini), but they have to hide their potential rendezvous for fear of being arrested — because, yes, being or acting gay in public could land you in jail in 1930s New York City. But after their very funny one-night stand, Chauncey, a local burlesque performer who stars as the Nance (short for Nancy Boy) in a show at the Irving Place Theatre, cannot seem to shake the mysterious Ned, who keeps hanging around, which both delights and annoys Chauncey, a conservative Republican who cherishes his privacy. But as the cops close in on them, they both have to examine who they really are deep down and what they want out of life. Playwright Beane (The Little Dog Laughed, Xanadu) and award-winning director Jack O’Brien (The Coast of Utopia, Hairspray) keep the action moving across John Lee Beatty’s rotating set, which turns from Chauncey’s apartment to backstage and then onstage at the Irving Place Theatre, where Chauncey performs naughty sketches with his partner, Efram (Lewis J. Stadlen), that are filled with deliciously devious and supremely silly double entendres. The troupe also includes bawdy strippers Carmen (Andréa Burns), Joan (Jenni Barber), and Sylvie (Cady Huffman), who tantalize the audience with yet more haughtiness. The play is at its best when Chauncey delves into the political implications of his personal life and career, particularly in an inventively staged courtroom scene. But while the play celebrates the boundary-defying, envelope-pushing burlesque defended so eloquently by Chauncey, it actually features far too many examples; while several of the skits are memorable, at certain points it would have been more interesting to continue with what was going on behind the scenes rather than depicting yet another burlesque bit. The Nance was written with Lane in mind, and Lane is terrific in the role that, well, was tailor made for him. Huffman, who won a Tony playing opposite Lane in The Producers, is also outstanding as a stripper who is smarter than she initially lets on. If you love old-fashioned burlesque, you’re likely to love The Nance, while if you don’t care much for that type of entertainment, you’re still in for a solid night of quality theater.

MATILDA THE MUSICAL

Miss Trunchbull (Bertie Carvel) declares that “children are maggots” in MATILDA (photo by Joan Marcus)

Shubert Theatre
225 West 44th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through April 6, 2014, $32-$157
www.matildathemusical.com

The best musical to hit the Great White Way since The Book of Mormon, the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Matilda is a dazzling spectacle, a sensational gift from across the pond. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel, Matilda follows the trials and tribulations of young Matilda Wormwood (played alternately by Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon, and Milly Shapiro), an extraordinarily gifted nine-year-old who loves to read books and tell stories. But her sleazy car-salesman father (Gabriel Ebert), who is involved in a shady deal with some Russians, and her self-obsessed mother (Lesli Margherita), who is training for a dance competition with hot-to-trot partner Rudolpho (Phillip Spaeth), want her to give up books and instead be more like her older brother, the dim-witted Michael (Taylor Trensch), who spends his days watching TV and grunting. At school, her teacher, Miss Honey (Lauren Ward), recognizes Matilda’s promise and wants to escalate her education, but the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (Bertie Carvel in magnificent drag), prefers to punish kids — by sending them off to the terrifying Chokey — rather than promote learning. Meanwhile, Matilda tells an intriguing story to Mrs. Phelps (Karen Aldridge), the school librarian, about a doomed relationship between an acrobat (Samantha Sturm) and an escapologist (Ben Thompson) that is a metaphor for Matilda’s awful family life. But with the help of her remarkable self-possession and unending determination, Matilda is not about to give up her unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Matilda (Molly Shapiro) tells illuminating, and very adult, stories to Mrs. Phelps the librarian (Karen Aldridge) in MATILDA (photo by Joan Marcus)

Winner of seven Olivier Awards, Matilda is a complete triumph from start to finish, from the opening “Miracle” scene, in which the kids are all introduced at a birthday party, to the closing ensemble piece, “Revolting Children.” Every detail is filled with magic, from Rob Howell’s letter-laden sets, which spell out various words that appear during the course of the show, and his inventive, very funny costumes, particularly for Miss Trunchbull and Matilda’s father, to Peter Darling’s choreography, which reaches jaw-dropping proportions when the stage turns into a three-dimensional Scrabble board. Shapiro is extraordinary as the title character, employing just the right mix of wry cynicism and childhood wonder, as Dennis Kelly’s book and Tim Minchin’s music and lyrics capture Dahl’s unique tone and spirit. “So you think you’re able to survive this mess / by being a prince or a princess / you will soon see / there’s no escaping tragedy,” the kids sing in the bouncy but ominous “School Song,” continuing, “And even if you put in heaps of effort / you’re just wasting energy / ’cause your life as you know it / is ancient history.” The large cast also includes Frenie Acoba as Lavender, who develops a delightfully devilish little plan, and Jack Broderick as Bruce, who has a thing for chocolate cake, but even with all the cute and talented kids around, it’s Carvel as the hunchbacked Miss Trunchbull who steals the show, declaring that “children are maggots” as she takes delight in destroying even the tiniest bits of happiness they might find. Impressively directed by Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage, Boeing-Boeing), Matilda creates a world of pure imagination, yet one with darkness hovering around every corner, the must-see musical of the season.

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL

Hitsville, U.S.A. comes to Broadway in new jukebox musical (photo by Joan Marcus)

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
205 West 46th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Through December 30, $49-$159
www.motownthemusical.com

Motown: The Musical opens with a battle of the bands between the Temptations and the Four Tops from the 1983 Motown 25 television special, setting the too-fast pace for this watered-down ride through the history of the legendary record label and its founder, Berry Gordy. With a book by Gordy based on his 1994 autobiography, To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown, the jukebox musical features snippets from nearly sixty songs from the Detroit label’s stellar catalog, whipping past in sped-up fury, re-created by a talented cast of performers who, of course, “ain’t nothing like the real thing” (a tune that, by the way, is not in the show). Brandon Victor Dixon is solid as Gordy, a dreamer who goes from odd job to odd job until deciding to start his own music company. He puts together an amazing group of singers, from Marvin Gaye (Bryan Terrell Clark), Smokey Robinson (Charl Brown), Stevie Wonder (Raymond Luke Jr. and Ryan Shaw), and Mary Wells (N’Kenge) to the Marvelettes, Gladys Knight (Marva Hicks) and the Pips, and Martha Reeves (Saycon Sengbloh) and the Vandellas. But this by-the-numbers story of Hitsville, U.S.A., directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, focuses too much on the relationship between Gordy and Diana Ross (Valisia LeKae), feeling more like a public apology than a realistic depiction of their years together, both personally and professionally, particularly her solo debut in Las Vegas that involves forced audience interaction. Gordy also forces in set pieces related to the civil rights movement and such tragedies as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King that are driven by clichés.

Raymond Luke Jr. nearly steals the show as young Michael Jackson (played alternately by Jibreel Mawry), channeling the superstar on such Jackson 5 classics as “ABC,” “I Want You Back,” and “I’ll Be There,” but that also is a major problem with the production, which works so hard to impress the audience with its re-creations, resulting in truncated versions that come off more like a talent show, albeit a pretty darn good one. There are also a few new songs written by Gordy and Michael Lovesmith that are standard Broadway musical fare. Motown: The Musical is like an old record spinning on an even older turntable, going a little too fast, filled with skips and scratches as the needle follows the grooves, but in the end, the songs are so good that you just might not even care about all those hiccups.

KINKY BOOTS

Al Hirschfeld Theatre
302 West 45th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through September 1, $57 – $137
www.kinkybootsthemusical.com

Adapted from the 2005 film that itself was inspired by a true story, Kinky Boots has marched onto Broadway looking fabulous while trying its best to balance itself on a pair of shaky, uneven, extremely high heels. It arrives with behind-the-scenes star power: Harvey Fierstein wrote the book, pop star Cyndi Lauper composed the music and lyrics, David Rockwell designed the set, and Jerry Mitchell, who will be awarded the “Mr. Abbott” Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre next month, directs and choreographs the splashy musical. Unfortunately, the problems start at the top, with underwhelming performances from Stark Sands (American Idiot, Journey’s End) as Charlie Price, who has been born into a shoemaking Northampton family but has bigger dreams than going into the family business, and Billy Porter (Miss Saigon, Grease, Dreamgirls) as Simon/Lola, a transvestite entertainer who teams up with Charlie to try to save the factory by designing sexy boots for men who dress up as women, exemplified by Lola’s sparkly — and, yes, definitely male — angels, played with plenty of panache by Paul Canaan, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Kyle Taylor Parker, Kyle Post, Charlie Sutton, and Joey Taranto. But while Charlie plans to unveil the new line at a Milan fashion show, his fiancée, Nicola (Celina Carvajal), wants him to close the factory and move with her to London to start their new life together. Meanwhile, the factory workers, many of whom have followed in their parents’ footsteps, are caught in between, with tough, rugged Don (Daniel Stewart Sherman) representing the traditional, old-fashioned side of things and Lauren (Annaleigh Ashford) willing to do whatever it takes to keep Price & Son running.

Sands is rather vanilla as Charlie, never really inhabiting the role, and Porter, taking on the part that earned Chiwetel Ojiofor a much-deserved Golden Globe nomination, stumbles over some line deliveries and doesn’t quite hit the necessary high notes, but Rockwell’s exciting movable set and a dazzling turn by Ashford (Hair, Wicked, Legally Blonde), who virtually steals the show with her knockout solo “The History of Wrong Guys,” help keep things on track, along with Gregg Barnes’s appropriately glitzy/trashy costumes. The second act is stronger than the first, although a boxing match between Don and Simon goes too far as Fierstein begins to fall into the same trap Jarrold did with the film, trying too hard to make its point about individuality and acceptance. Lauper’s score, which often references 1980s hits, featuring such songs as “Sex Is in the Heel,” “I’m Not My Father’s Son,” and the first-act ender “Everybody Say Yeah,” is strong if not quite as Broadway redefining as one might hope. Even with its bumpy, sometimes lumbering gait, Kinky Boots is a glittery, sparkly extravaganza, loaded with fun for divas of all shapes and sizes.

LUCKY GUY

John Cotter (Peter Gerety) mentors Mike McAlary (Tom Hanks) on New York City journalism in LUCKY GUY (photo by Joan Marcus)

Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 16, $87-$152
www.luckyguyplay.com

Tom Hanks makes a terrific Broadway debut as New York City journalist Mike McAlary in Nora Ephron’s consistently entertaining Lucky Guy. Hanks, who won back-to-back Oscars in 1993-94 for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump and starred in Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, uses his general likability to endear the audience to McAlary, a fiercely ambitious reporter who shifted between New York Newsday, the Daily News, and the Post from 1985 to 1998, breaking some of the most important stories of that time, including the 77th Precinct corruption scandal, which made his career. The show is set up as a kind of Irish wake, with a group of McAlary’s colleagues drinking and telling stories about the Pulitzer Prize winner’s life and dedication to his chosen field. Among them are Courtney B. Vance as his longtime editor, Hap Hairston; Hanks’s former Bosom Buddies costar Peter Scolari as Daily News scribe Michael Daly; Peter Gerety as mentor John Cotter; Michael Gaston as subway columnist Jim Dwyer; Richard Masur as bombastic newspaper editors Jerry Nachman and Stanley Joyce; and Danny Mastrogiorgio as journalist Bob Drury. Maura Tierney, in her Great White Way debut as well, plays McAlary’s wife, Alice, who spent many a night worrying about his safety as he investigated dangerous stories, while Christopher McDonald is his fast-talking lawyer, Eddie Hayes. David Rockwell’s scenic design evokes the look and feel of a city newsroom, with lots of smoking, cursing (much of it courtesy of Deirdre Lovejoy as reporter Louise Imerman), drinking, and fighting for “the wood” — the story that is teased at the top of the front page, while a big logo at the rear of the stage announces which paper McAlary is writing for at that time.

Journalist Mike McAlary (Tom Hanks) becomes part of the story in LUCKY GUY (photo by Joan Marcus)

Ephron, who spent part of her early career as a journalist, did plenty of research in writing Lucky Guy, and she pulls no punches in portraying McAlary — whose battle with cancer while still trying to do his job was an inspiration to Ephron, who was fighting myelodysplastic syndrome while finishing this play — warts and all, exploring his jealousy of Jimmy Breslin, his lack of loyalty to his employers, his near-fatal drunk-driving accident, and his famous failure when he refuses to back off of a story that implodes in his face. Ephron also avoids overplaying the sympathy card as the cancer begins to eat away at him. Director George C. Wolfe keeps things moving smoothly even as the characters go from reenacting the various tales to addressing the audience directly, sharing personal insights into McAlary and New York City journalism. Despite being about a man who tragically died too young, at the age of forty-one, written by a woman who also died tragically, at the age of seventy-one, both of whom still had a lot to give to this world, Lucky Guy manages to be a funny, irreverent, and, ultimately, uplifting two hours, led by an immensely talented actor who has seamlessly made the transition from Hollywood to Broadway.