this week in theater

KING AND COUNTRY — SHAKESPEARE’S GREAT CYCLE OF KINGS: RICHARD II AND HENRY V

David Tennant wears the crown in RSC production of RICHARD II at BAM (photo by Richard Termine)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Richard II: April 26 & 29
Henry V: April 24 & 28
Cycle continues through May 1, $30-$200
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Marathons and binge-watching are nothing new to the Royal Shakespeare Company, incorporated in 1875 as the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In 2011, the RSC presented five shows at the Park Avenue Armory, part of the Lincoln Center Festival (Julius Caesar, As You Like It, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and The Winter’s Tale). The RSC has now taken over the BAM Harvey Theater in Fort Greene, where it is honoring the four hundredth anniversary of the death of the Bard with the four history plays that make up the Henriad, the continuing tales of the House of Lancaster. “King and Country: Shakespeare’s Great Cycle of Kings” begins with Richard II, featuring a fabulous David Tennant in the title role, portraying the dandy king with a bittersweet bisexual abandon and more than a touch of Jesus. The Duke of Gloucester is dead, and Henry Bolingbroke (Jasper Britton), Richard’s cousin, accuses Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Middleton), of treason and murder. An almost-duel, exile, return, and revolt ensue, as Henry plots to take back the throne that he believes belongs to him, while Richard becomes obsessed with battling Ireland. Directed, as all four shows are, by Gregory Doran on a spare stage designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis, Richard II, which is told completely in verse, boasts particularly fine performances by Julian Glover as John of Gaunt, Oliver Ford Davies as the Duke of York, and Nicholas Gerard-Martin as Bagot, in addition to Britton, Middleton, and Tennant, the last following a long line of actors playing Richard II onstage (the play has never been made into a film), including John Gielgud, Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi, Kevin Spacey, Mark Rylance, and Eddie Redmayne. Tennant (Doctor Who, Broadchurch, Jennifer Jones), who played the title character in Doran’s 2008 staging of Hamlet with Patrick Stewart as his father, is utterly charming as the frolicking king, his every step a delight even as everything starts falling apart around him. Above the audience stage right, trumpeters Chris Seddon, Andrew Stone-Fewings, and James Stretton announce scenes, while at stage left sopranos Charlotte Ashley, Helena Raeburn, and Alexandra Saunders sing as a chorus. (The music is by Paul Englishby.) The ending sets up the next two shows, Henry IV, Part I and Henry IV, Part II, with Britton again playing the ascendant ruler.

Alex Hassell takes the throne as Henry V in final work in Shakespeare’s Henriad (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Alex Hassell takes the throne as Henry V in final work in Shakespeare’s Henriad (photo © Stephanie Berger)

The Henriad concludes with Henry V, as Alex Hassell, who played Prince Hal in both parts of Henry IV, does a stern turn as the king, who is determined to take over France, regardless of what the Archbishop of Canterbury (Jim Hooper) and others might say. Meanwhile, the daffy dauphin (Robert Gilbert) essentially dares Henry to bring it on, even as King Charles VI (Simon Thorp) and Queen Isobel (Jane Lapotaire) of France consider other options, as does their daughter, the princess Katherine (Jennifer Kirby). Joining the fray on Henry’s side are Bardolph (Joshua Richards), Nym (Middleton), Pistol (Antony Byrne), and Mistress Quickly (Sarah Parks), who are renewing their purpose in life now that their leader, Sir John Falstaff, has died. It all comes to a head at the epic Battle of Agincourt, staged in marvelous minimalism by Doran. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; / For he to-day that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother,” Henry declares in the famous St. Crispin’s Day speech. As in Richard II, projections give depth and atmosphere to the surroundings, along with live music, and the acting is impeccable, with Hassell adding his name to a regal roster of Henrys that boasts Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Ian Holm, Timothy Dalton, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hiddleston, and Jude Law. Davies nearly steals the show as the self-aware chorus, a narrator in modern dress who introduces scenes, entering and leaving the drama, watching events unfold while giving such explanations as “Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; / Into a thousand parts divide on man, / And make imaginary puissance; / Think when we talk of horses, that you see them / Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth; / For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, / Carry them here and there; jumping o’er times, / Turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, / Admit me Chorus to this history; / Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, / Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.” We can indeed judge the play kindly, bringing the Henriad to a memorable conclusion. All four works have at least two more performances each at BAM, where you can also see the exhibition “King and Country: Treasures from the Folger,” consisting of rare paper artifacts from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: BLOOD AT THE ROOT

(photo courtesy Penn State Centre Stage)

Inspired by the story of the Jena Six, BLOOD AT THE ROOT examines racial injustice in twenty-first-century America (photo courtesy Penn State Centre Stage)

BLOOD AT THE ROOT
National Black Theatre
2031 Fifth Ave. between 125th & 126th Sts.
Previews April 20-22, $15; April 23 – May 8, $25; May 9-15, $35
212-722-3800
www.nationalblacktheatre.org

In 2006, six black students at Jena High School in Central Louisiana were arrested after a fight with a white student, shortly after nooses were hung from a tree in the school courtyard, leading to a nationwide discussion of racial injustice in America. Inspired by the events surrounding the Jena Six, playwright Dominique Morisseau wrote Blood at the Root, which will make its New York City premiere at the National Black Theatre in Harlem from April 20 to May 15. The play, which incorporates music, dance, and poetry, is directed by Steve Broadnax and features Stori Ayers, Brandon Carter, Allison Jaye, Tyler Reilly, Kenzie Ross, and Christian Thompson. Morisseau, who is also an actress, has previously written Sunset Baby, Follow Me to Nellie’s, and the “Detroit Projects” trilogy, which consists of Detroit ’67, Paradise Blue, and Skeleton Crew, which returns to the Atlantic next month.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: Blood at the Root begins previews April 20 and opens April 23 at the National Black Theatre, and twi-ny has three pairs of tickets to give away for free. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and favorite play that addresses racism to contest@twi-ny.com by Thursday, April 20, at 3:00 to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; three winners will be selected at random.

THE HUMANS ON BROADWAY

Stephen Karam explores the bright and dark sides of the American dream in beautifully humanistic Broadway drama (photo by Brigitte Lacombe)

Helen Hayes Theatre
240 West 44th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through July 24, $39-$145
www.thehumansonbroadway.com
www.roundabouttheatre.org

The most human off-Broadway show of the season is now the most human on Broadway. The Roundabout production of Pulitzer Prize finalist Stephen Karam’s The Humans, which ran at the Laura Pels from October 25 through January 3, has made a seamless transition to the Great White Way, where it is inhabiting the Helen Hayes Theatre through July 24. Karam has made minimal, virtually undetectable tweaks to the play, which features the same cast and crew and is just as good the second time around. Tony nominee and Drama Desk and Obie Award winner Reed Birney stars as Erik Blake, the patriarch of a Scranton family that is gathering for Thanksgiving in the new Chinatown apartment of younger daughter Brigid (Sarah Steele), which she and boyfriend, Richard (Arian Moayed) have just moved into. Erik and his wife, Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell), have driven into the city with his ailing mother, Momo (Lauren Klein), who requires constant care. They are joined by older daughter Aimee (Cassie Beck), a Philadelphia lawyer who has recently broken up with her longtime girlfriend. Over the course of ninety-five intimate minutes, we learn about each character’s strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams, their successes and their failures, as Scranton native Karam (Speech & Debate, Dark Sisters) and two-time Tony-winning director Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Assassins) steer clear of clichés and melodramatic sentimentality, even when making direct references to 9/11. The acting, led by New York theater treasures Birney (You Got Older, Circle Mirror Transformation) and Houdyshell (Follies, Well) and rising star Steele (Slowgirl, Speech and Debate), is impeccable, making audience members feel like they’re experiencing their own Thanksgiving. Every moment of The Humans, which takes place on David Zinn’s spectacular two-floor tearaway set, rings true, a gripping, honest depiction of life in the twenty-first century, filled with the typical ups and downs, fears and anxieties, that we all face every day. Although things get very serious, including a touch of the otherworldly, the play is also hysterically funny as it paints a familiar yet frightening portrait of contemporary America, mixing in darkness both literally and figuratively. To find out more about the story and to read a short excerpt from the play, you can read my review of the off-Broadway run here, but by this point all you need to know is that this is a must-see production of a must-see show.

OPEN PLAN: CECIL TAYLOR

Jazz great Cecil Taylor rehearses at the Whitney in November 2015

Whitney Museum of American Art
Neil Bluhm Family Galleries, fifth floor
99 Gansevoort St.
April 14-24, free with museum admission unless otherwise noted
212-570-3600
whitney.org

The fourth stage of the Whitney’s “Open Plan” series, which previously saw Andrea Fraser, Lucy Dodd, and Michael Heizer take over the large fifth-floor space in the new downtown building, hands the reins over to free jazz legend, poet, and New York City native Cecil Taylor. The eighty-seven-year-old pianist will be celebrated in a series of programs beginning April 14 at 8:00 ($50), when Taylor will make a rare public appearance, collaborating with British drummer Tony Oxley and Japanese dancer and choreographer Min Tanaka. On April 15 at 7:00, cellist Tristan Honsinger will perform a solo set, while writer Thulani Davis, dancer and professor Cheryl Banks-Smith, and bassist Henry Grimes join forces for a unique presentation. On April 16 at 2:00, Banks-Smith will moderate “Cecil Taylor and Dance,” a panel discussion with Dianne McIntyre, Heather Watts, and Tanaka. That evening at 7:00, trumpter Enrico Rava, double bassist William Parker, and drummer Andrew Cyrille will perform as a trio, in addition to a solo set by Cyrille. On April 20 at 3:00, a Poetry and Music gathering brings together poets A. B. Spellman and Anne Waldman and saxophonist Devin Brahja Waldman, Anne’s nephew. On April 21 at 3:00, Poetry and Music features Steve Dalachinsky, Clark Coolidge with Michael Bisio, and Nathaniel Mackey with Grimes. That night at 9:00 ($10), Hilton Als directs a restaging of Adrienne Kennedy’s one-act play A Rat’s Mass, starring Helga Davis; Taylor wrote and directed the music for the show. And on April 22 at 6:00, Chris Funkhouser, Tracie Morris and Susie Ibarra, Fred Moten and William Parker, and Jemeel Moondoc/Ensemble Muntu (featuring Parker, Mark Hennen, and Charles Downs) will present an evening of poetry and music. Throughout this part of “Open Plan,” there will also be listening sessions hosted by Davis, Archie Rand, André Martinez, Gary Giddins, Moten and Funkhouser, Ben Young, and Nahum Chandler in addition to screenings in the Kaufman Gallery of such films as Sheldon Rochlin’s Cecil Taylor: Burning Poles, Chris Felver’s Cecil Taylor: All the Notes, Billy Woodberry’s And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead, and the world premiere of Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s The Silent Eye about Taylor and Tanaka (and followed by Q&As with the director, who sat on Taylor’s stoop until the pianist would finally talk to him). There will also be documents, videos, audio, scores, photographs, poetry, and ephemera from throughout Taylor’s life and career on view.

DRY POWDER

Rick (Hank Azaria) finds himself in a battle between Seth (John Krasinski) and Jenny (Claire Danes) in Sarah Burgess’s DRY POWDER (photo by Joan Marcus)

Martinson Hall, the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St. at Astor P.
Tuesday through Sunday through May 1, $95
212-539-8500
www.publictheater.org

Being a Wharton and NYU grad, I had a, well, personal vested interest in seeing Sarah Burgess’s first professionally produced play, Dry Powder, continuing at the Public Theater’s Martinson Hall through May 1. Several decades ago, I dumped a potential career in high finance to work in publishing and the arts, but many of my fellow students and close friends made their way to Wall Street and Park Ave., where they still engage in the art of the deal. (One has even played golf with Donald Trump.) So I wasn’t sure just how much of this show about a private equity firm fighting for its financial life I would be able to take, but fortunately, Burgess has written a smart, tightly constructed play in which nothing is black and white but instead a very specific kind of green — as well as a deep shade of cobalt blue. Hank Azaria stars as Rick, the terse, direct founder of KMM Capital Management. In the midst of a public relations blunder involving an elephant and his impending marriage, Rick is brought a seemingly can’t-miss proposition by one of his two limited partners, Seth (John Krasinski). Seth wants Rick to sign off on a deal to buy the family-owned American company Landmark Luggage while promising Landmark CEO Jeff Schrader (Sanjit De Silva) that KMM will help it grow, rather than move the home base, lay off employees, and eventually flip it. But the offshore-layoff-quick-sale scenario is precisely what Rick’s other limited partner, Jenny (Claire Danes), has figured out could earn KMM more money. While Seth, a married man looking to have children, has developed a friendly relationship with Jeff and seems to care about Landmark’s future, Jenny, a single woman and workaholic with no friends, is all about the bottom line and nothing else; she doesn’t seem to understand personal connections or even the public good. “People can’t relate to me,” she says without a hint of regret. Facing a financial crisis, Rick has some important decisions to make that will affect more than just KMM.

Seth (John Krasinski) and Jenny (Claire Danes) take opposing views of a major deal in DRY POWDER (photo by Joan Marcus)

Burgess fills Dry Powder with such financial terms as “leveraged buyouts,” “letters of intent,” “dividend recaps,” “IPOs,” and “dry powder” (industry slang for liquid cash reserves), but the shop talk never overwhelms the narrative, which also avoids drifting into a clear good vs. evil setup. The audience sits on all four sides of Rachel Hauck’s dramatically simple, rectangular, boldly blue stage, a raised platform with a desk and three boxes that serve multiple purposes, moved around between scenes by well-dressed men and women while Lindsay Jones’s music and Jason Lyons’s colorful lighting grab your attention. In a power suit and sporting short-cropped hair, three-time Emmy winner Danes (Homeland, Temple Grandin) is a delight as Jenny, a robotic, cold-hearted financier who doesn’t care that she doesn’t know the name of her chief analyst, who has recently been hospitalized. Danes gives her just the right balance between tough negotiator and comic relief. Krasinski (The Office, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men) plays Seth with a smarmy charm that reveals the character’s claims of trying to benefit society while making money are perhaps not quite as true as he lets on, as he’s too quick to defend the size of his yacht and his score on the GMATs. Five-time Emmy winner Azaria (The Simpsons, Tuesdays with Morrie) imbues Rick with a tortured edge while loving the game. De Silva (War Horse, Awake and Sing!) is sort of an onstage stand-in for the everyday American, having worked hard, made something of himself, but is now on the cusp of something big and facing some hard choices. Director Thomas Kail, on a bit of a roll with Hamilton (as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s earlier Broadway hit, In the Heights), manages to make all ninety-five minutes more than palatable, given that we’re essentially watching one-percenters argue over tens of millions of dollars and the value of American jobs. It’s not an earth-shattering exploration of what makes these people tick, but it doesn’t purport to be anything other than exactly what it is. And it makes me extremely happy that I chose a different career path. (Advance tickets for Dry Powder are sold out, but there is a $20 TodayTix lottery for each performance, and $750 – $1,000 seats are available for the closing week benefit.)

ALICIA GRULLÓN: FILIBUSTER

Alicia Grullón will reenact Wendy Davis’s eleven-hour filibuster of Texas Senate Bill 5 in its entirety on April 13 at BRIC House

Who: Alicia Grullón
What: Special performance as part of “Whisper or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere”
Where: BRIC Arts | Media House, stoop, 647 Fulton St., 718-683-5600
When: Wednesday, April 13, free, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Why: On June 25, 2013, Texas state senator Wendy Davis, in pink sneakers, held the floor for eleven hours, filibustering against Senate Bill 5, which “[related] to the regulation of abortion procedures, providers, and facilities; providing penalties.” Davis became an instant media superstar; however, the bill pass passed in a special session held in July. On April 13, performance artist Alicia Grullón, with Davis’s blessing, will reenact the eleven-hour filibuster at the BRIC House Stoop in Fort Greene. Yes, she will be wearing pink sneakers. Admission is free, and people can come and go as they please. “Senator Davis’s filibuster fell along the lines of these other events where moments of protest or tragedy highlight the impact of imbalanced history and policies on the social sphere and on the body of other[s],” Grullón said in a statement. “Her filibuster on women’s healthcare highlighted and reignited the necessity for an equitable feminist history and a call for younger women of color to take the lead since many of the women affected by the closing of clinics are poor and/or of color.” Previously, Grullón has covered her face in newsprint while trying to sell such staples as rice, flour, and beans for between $1000 and $5000 per pound to bring attention to food riots in Haiti (“Revealing New York: The Disappearance of Other”); spent four hours standing in the snow in Van Cortlandt Park to let people know about an undocumented worker who froze to death in a Long Island forest, his body found days later (“Illegal Death”); and led a one-person boycott of the closed Stella D’Oro factory in the Bronx (“No Cookies”). “Filibuster,” which is being held in conjunction with the BRIC House exhibition “Whisper or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere,” will be streamed live here; you can also tweet questions to Grullón (#BRICfilibuster) and follow the event on Periscope.

TICKET ALERT: LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2016

Jonathan Pryce will play Shylock in Shakespeare’s Globe production of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE at Lincoln Center Festival this summer (photo by Manuel Harden)

Multiple venues at Lincoln Center
July 13-31, $30-$125
Tickets on sale now
www.lincolncenterfestival.org

For twenty years, one of the highlights of every summer arts season has been the Lincoln Center Festival, and 2016 is no exception, with another stellar lineup of dance, music, opera, and theater from around the globe. The festival begins with six presentations by Japan’s Kanze Noh Theatre at the Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center. Led by Grand Master Kiyokazu Kanze, the troupe, which rarely ventures outside its home country, will perform Okina with Kanze’s son, Saburota, and Hagoromo on July 13, Sumida Gawa, Busshi, and Shakkyo on July 14, Hagoromo, Kaki Yamabushi, and Sumida Gawa on July 15, Okina and Aoi No Ue on July 16 at 1:30, Hagoromo, Busshi, and Aoi No Ue on July 16 at 7:30, and Okina and Shakkyo on July 17. From July 13 to 16 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, visual artist Jennifer Wen Ma directs composer Huang Ruo’s Ming Dynasty romantic opera, Paradise Interrupted. Japan’s Takarazuka Revue will bring “All That Jazz” and more to the David H. Koch Theater July 20–24 with an all-female version of Chicago, with a rotating cast, lyrics in Japanese, and Bob Fosse’s original choreography. Shakespeare’s Globe, which recently staged the marvelous Broadway double shot of Twelfth Night and Richard III, will make its Lincoln Center debut July 20–24 at the Rose Theater with Jonathan Pryce in The Merchant of Venice, directed by Jonathan Munby. British company 1927 reinvents a traditional tale in Golem, incorporating animation, puppetry, crazy set design and costumes, and general absurdity July 26–31 at the Lynch.

Japan’s Takarazuka Revue will present an all-female version of CHICAGO at Lincoln Center Festival (photo by Maiko Miagawa and Nobuhiko Hikichi)

The National Ballet of Canada waltzes into the Koch Theater July 28–31 with Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon’s unique take on The Winter’s Tale, featuring music by Joby Talbot, scenic design by Tony winner Bob Crowley, and silk effects by Basil Twist. In addition, Goran Bregović’s Wedding and Funeral Orchestra marches into David Geffen Hall July 15–16; Reich/Reverberations pays tribute to Steve Reich July 16, 19, and 21 with Sō Percussion, Ensemble Signal, and JACK Quartet; C.I.C.T. / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord’s version of Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme goes for laughs July 20–24 at the Lynch, directed by Denis Podalydès and with choreography by Kaori Ito; musicians Wang Li and Wu Wei team up on July 23 at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse; and a few days later Sō Percussion’s Trilogy takes over the Penthouse, with Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting playing works by Reich, Dessner, and Lang on July 28, Xenakis, Ergun, and Trueman on July 29, and Cage, Lansky, and Mackey on July 30. There are various special ticket packages that can save you between twenty and thirty-five percent if you go for multiple shows, but those deals are going fast.