this week in theater

FIASCO THEATER’S THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

Fiasco Theater’s affectionate production of THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA has been extended at Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center (photo by Gerry Goodstein)

Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center
262 Ashland Pl. between Lafayette Ave. & Fulton St.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 7, $20-$100
866-811-4111
www.tfana.org
www.fiascotheater.com

The Fiasco Theater continues its mission “to offer dynamic, joyful, actor-driven productions of classic and new plays” with a dynamic, joyful, actor-driven production of what is believed to be Shakespeare’s first play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The New York City–based company of Brown graduates, which has previously staged Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, and this past season’s utterly delightful, Drama Desk–nominated Into the Woods, has stripped down Shakespeare’s early comedy of letters and loyalty, mistaken identity and misplaced love, many elements of which would be explored more deeply in his future works, to its bare essentials. “Upon delving into it we quickly discovered that Two Gents is not merely a ‘shallow story,’ like those that Valentine mocks in the first scene, but a human and layered play that reveals questions and ideas of surprising depth,” a directors note in the program explains. While that might be a bit of a stretch, Fiasco does reveal Two Gents to be a fun-filled frolic through romantic folly. As the play opens, Valentine (Zachary Fine) is telling his compatriot Proteus (Noah Brody) that he is leaving Verona to court a fair lady. “To Milan let me hear from thee by letters / Of thy success in love, and what news else / Betideth here in absence of thy friend. / And I likewise will visit thee with mine,” Valentine declares. Proteus wishes him well, but because of a mix-up with Valentine’s servant, Speed (Paul L. Coffey), Proteus soon turns away from his true love, Julia (codirector Jessie Austrian), and decides instead to woo Valentine’s intended, Sylvia (Emily Young). But Sylvia’s father, the Duke of Milan (Andy Grotelueschen), favors her wealthy suitor Thurio (Coffey), setting off a three-way fight for her hand. “Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt,” Thurio says, to which Valentine retorts, “I know it well, sir. You have an exchequer of words and, I think, no other treasure.” But as Speed has previously told Valentine, “Love is blind,” leading to a frantic conclusion.

Lucetta (Emily Young) and Julia (Jessie Austrian) dream about love in early Shakespeare comedy (photo by Gerry Goodstein)

Set designer Derek McLane (Into the Woods, The Heiress) has covered the ceiling, walls, and backdrop with hundreds of crumpled-up handwritten letters; the stage at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center also features two white columns that serve as trees, in addition to benches on either side where the actors sit when not involved in the action (and seem to enjoy everything onstage as much as the crowd does). Regular Fiasco costume designer Whitney Locher has dressed the performers in springtime pastels,1950s-prepster style, the men sporting color-coded saddle-shoe bucks, the women in lacy cap-sleeves. Codirectors Austrian and Ben Steinfeld have the cast speak Shakespeare’s lines in contemporary rhythm, not iambic pentameter, giving it a more intimate feel and quickening the pace. The company is uniformly excellent — a particular treat is Launce’s (Grotelueschen) two monologues with his dog, Crab, played with great humor by Fine wearing a fake nose — singing a few songs and, before the first act and during intermission, mingling with the audience, giving out smiles and hugs. As is Fiasco’s style, the whole production is filled with an intoxicating affection, which works extremely well with one of Shakespeare’s lesser, though plenty charming, comedies. (The May 16 matinee will be followed by a free TFANA Talk with Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender author Alisa Solomon and members of the company. And after the May 17 matinee, food historian Francine Segan will host “Shakespeare Primavera,” a Talk & Taste inspired by Shakespeare’s Italian plays, catered by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events; tickets are $45, or $35 if you attended the show or have a season package.)

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS smells sweet in Broadway premiere (photo by Angela Sterling)

Palace Theatre
1564 Broadway at 47th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through November 22, $57-$147
www.anamericaninparisbroadway.com

Tony nominee and Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Lucas and Royal Ballet artistic associate Christopher Wheeldon don’t merely translate Vincente Minnelli’s 1951 Oscar-winning film, An American in Paris, to the stage, they transform it. This first-ever theatrical production of the Gershwin musical is set in Paris at the end of WWII, as former GI Jerry Mulligan (New York City Ballet principal dancer Robert Fairchild) decides to stay in France and explore his art — as well as Lise Dassin (Royal Ballet dancer Leanne Cope), a shy young woman who works in a parfumerie but dreams of becoming a ballerina. Jerry soon finds a friend in Adam Hochberg (Brandon Uranowitz), a sarcastic composer and pianist who is training Henri Baurel (Max von Essen) for a cabaret act, a secret Henri keeps from his stern German parents (Veanne Cox and Scott Willis). Meanwhile, wealthy arts patron Milo Davenport (Jill Paice) has taken Jerry under her wing, introducing him to high society — and perhaps into her boudoir. But Jerry has fallen head-over-heels for Lise, who has some secrets of her own — and is also being wooed at the same time by Adam and Henri.

Ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope dazzle in their Broadway debuts (photo © 2015 Matthew Murphy)

Ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope dazzle in their Broadway debuts (photo by Marie-Noëlle Robert)

Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss, The Light in the Piazza) has cleverly expanded on Alan Jay Lerner’s original screenplay, not only making Lise a ballerina but adding references to Nazism and anti-Semitism, while Wheeldon (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winter’s Tale) does a spectacular job bringing ballet to Broadway, creating scintillating ballet numbers that are fresh and vibrant. The score, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira, features such memorable treats as “I Got Rhythm,” “’S Wonderful,” “But Not for Me,” “The Man I Love,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” in addition to the instrumentals “Concerto in F” and “Second Prelude,” all adapted and arranged beautifully by Rob Fisher. Two of the film’s highlights, the dreamlike “American in Paris” sequence and “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,” get the deluxe treatment, showing off Natasha Katz’s lighting and Bob Crowley’s gorgeous costumes and dazzling sets, which were inspired by Mondrian and the moving mirrors from the film. Fairchild and Cope are excellent in their Broadway debuts, dancing, singing, and acting with equal aplomb. And Lucas even leaves in Lerner’s Oscar Levant joke. Sure, “Fidgety Feet” is frivolous and the discussions of artistic integrity unnecessary, but everything else about An American in Paris on Broadway is, well, magnifique.

SOMETHING ROTTEN!

St. James Theatre
246 West 44th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through January 3, $37 – $177
rottenbroadway.com

Nearly five hundred years after William Shakespeare’s death, the author is still challenging modern dramatists around the world for theater space while influencing story lines and inspiring alternate takes on his thirty-six works. In their first stage production, brothers Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick anachronistically take audiences back to the Renaissance in Something Rotten!, a rousing musical farce that pays tribute to the Bard and Broadway by playfully skewering both. Two-time Tony nominee Brian d’Arcy James stars as Nick Bottom, who runs a local theater troupe with his brother, Nigel (John Cariani), that can’t escape Shakespeare’s (Christian Borle) shadow. Desperate to beat the Bard at his own game — and determined to show his feminist wife, Bea (Heidi Blickenstaff), that he can be the family’s main breadwinner — Nick takes advice from a vagrant soothsayer named Thomas Nostradamus (Brad Oscar), leading him to attempt the first-ever full-fledged musical, Omelette. But Nigel wants to write something more meaningful than a show about breakfast, while also becoming interested in Portia (Kate Reinders), the chaste daughter of Puritan leader Brother Jeremiah (Brooks Ashmanskas). Meanwhile, Shakespeare prances about like a rock star, prepared to take on all comers to his literary throne, ready, willing, and able to do whatever it takes to preserve his lofty status. “Yo! — He’s the bomb, the soul of the age / The wiz of the Elizabethan stage,” the crowd sings about Shakespeare in the opening number, “Welcome to the Renaissance,” continuing, “He’s incredible, unforgettable / He’s just so freakin’ awesome!”

Shakespeare (Christian Borle) rocks out to his adoring fans in the park in SOMETHING ROTTEN! (Christian Borle)

Karey, who cowrote the book with British novelist and script writer John O’Farrell (the two previously collaborated on the hit animated film Chicken Run), and Wayne, with whom Karey cowrote the music and lyrics, fill Something Rotten! with an endless array of references to Shakespeare and the Great White Way, from direct quotes, character names, and Gregg Barnes’s (Follies, The Drowsy Chaperone) costumes to Scott Pask’s (The Book of Mormon, The Coast of Utopia) high-school-like painted-cardboard sets and director Casey Nicholaw’s (The Book of Mormon, Spamalot) choreography. Part of the fun of Something Rotten! is trying to recognize all the references (be on the lookout for homages to Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, A Chorus Line, The Lion King, Hair, The Book of Mormon, The Producers, Gypsy, and countless others), which also saves you from not getting too caught up in the silly plot twists and several of the numbers that are precisely what is being made fun of. “Who talks like this?” Nick asks, referring to Shakespeare’s use of Olde English and iambic pentameter. “Nigel, why can’t we just write like we speak?” Among the most effective production numbers are “God, I Hate Shakespeare,” led by Nick and Nigel (Nick: “That little turd, he / has no sense about the audience / He makes them feel so dumb / The bastard doesn’t care / that my poor ass is getting numb”) and Nick and Nostradamus’s “A Musical” (Nick: “Well, that is the stupidest thing that I have ever heard / You’re doing a play, got something to say / so you sing it? It’s absurd / Who on earth is going to sit there / while an actor breaks into song / What possible thought can the audience think / other than this is horribly — wrong?”), while “Right Hand Man” is standard fluff, and “Will Power” and “Hard to Be the Bard” are overplayed and repetitive. But it’s all still great fun, with particularly fine turns by d’Arcy James (Shrek the Musical, Sweet Smell of Success), the Kristen Chenoweth-like Reinders (Wicked, Into the Woods), and Ashmanskas (Bullets over Broadway, Present Laughter), but Oscar (The Producers, Spamalot) steals the show as the clairvoyant bum who sums up what a musical is quite succinctly: “It appears to be a play where the dialogue stops and the plot is conveyed through song.” And in this case, it’s a celebration of the art form that will leave you giddy with delight, whether you are a lover or hater of Shakespeare — and Broadway musicals.

HAND TO GOD

Pastor Greg (Marc Kudisch) looks on as his church’s Christcateers rehearse in HAND TO GOD (photo by Joan Marcus)

Booth Theatre
222 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through October 4, $59 – $137
handtogodbroadway.com
www.shubert.nyc

Robert Askins’s Hand to God is one of the most outrageously hysterical and devilishly strange shows to come to Broadway in a long time. Originally presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre in 2011 and then by MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel in early 2014, Hand to God features a sensational central performance by Steven Boyer, who has been with the play since the beginning; it’s the kind of all-in exhibition you cannot imagine any other actor being able to even approach, so infused with a near-frightening level of skill and intelligence — and an obsessive quality that translates well to his character. Boyer (Modern Terrorism, Trevor) stars as Jason, a severely repressed teen dealing rather poorly with the recent death of his father. Jason is part of a small church group in Texas preparing to put on a moralistic puppet show for the congregation. The troupe is led by Jason’s mother, Margery (Geneva Carr), and also includes two other kids, the shy, practical, geek-chic Jessica (Sarah Stiles) and the tough-talking rebel Timothy (Michael Oberholtzer). They get together in the church basement, where they are occasionally visited by Pastor Greg (Marc Kudisch), who has his own ideas about how to help the widowed Margery through her newfound loneliness. Oh, and there’s one more character: Tyrone, Jason’s sock puppet and alter ego, who doesn’t take kindly to Jason’s attempt to destroy him, leading to no-holds-barred shenanigans that combine the sexiness of Avenue Q and the chills of The Exorcist with the lovable grossness of Ben Stiller’s Skank and the raunch of Seth MacFarlane’s Ted.

Tyrone comes between Jessica (Sarah Stiles) and Jason (Steven Boyer) in Tony-nominated demonic comedy (photo by Joan Marcus)

In Hand to God, Askins, whose latest work, Permission, is currently at MCC Theater, explores the conflux of the id, the ego, and the super-ego, examining where people turn to in times of trouble. While some may see it as blasphemous, it is not so much about religion as it is about personal demons and inner oppression. It’s also damn funny. “You’re so far back in the closet, you’re in Narnia,” Jessica tells Timothy early on. All five of the characters are flawed, but it’s Jason who responds to reality in the most dangerous way. “I think it’s doing bad things to me,” he says about Tyrone in the first act, but in the second act he says, “I don’t want to be bad,” perhaps recognizing that Tyrone is part of himself. Then again, judging by the awesomely satanic set change by Beowulf Boritt (Act One, The Scottsboro Boys) following intermission, and the rapturous skill with which Boyer deviates between Jason and Tyrone, whether re-creating Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” routine or leering at Jessica’s sock puppet, Jolene, maybe Tyrone is a possessed being all its own after all. The diabolical doings are handled with a thrilling chaos by director Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Verité, Trevor) and the excellent cast; you might not know what’s going to happen next, but you can be sure it will be extremely bizarre, potentially violent, and an absolute riot.

IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU

Jenny Steinberg (Lisa Howard) and her mother, Judy (Tyne Daly), discuss paninis in flat Broadway musical (photo by Joan Marcus)

Brooks Atkinson Theatre
256 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 9, $35-$142
877-250-2929
www.itshouldabeenyou.com
www.brooksatkinsontheater.com

It Shoulda Been You? You should be thankful it wasn’t. This ever-so-slight musical premiered in the fall of 2011 at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick with some of the same cast, and although it’s been trimmed from two hours and two acts to an intermissionless hundred minutes, the panini-thin tale is still way too long. The show takes place at the fashionable St. George Hotel, where Rebecca Steinberg (Sierra Boggess) and Brian Howard (David Burtka) are getting married. Rebecca’s father, Murray (Chip Zien), is a mensch, but her mother, Judy (Tyne Daly), is opinionated, judgmental, and domineering, especially when it comes to her older daughter, the single and overweight Jenny (Lisa Howard). Brian’s parents, George (Michael X. Martin) and Georgette (Harriet Harris), are cold WASPs who aren’t exactly celebrating the union of their son with the very Jewish Steinberg clan. A wrinkle is thrown in when Rebecca’s old boyfriend, Marty Kaufman (Josh Grisetti), arrives uninvited, seeking to stop the proceedings. Meanwhile, all-knowing wedding planner extraordinaire Albert (Edward Hibbert) is prepared for just about anything and everything, except for a grand finale that is seriously outdated and embarrassingly offensive, wasting a dazzling, eye-opening performance by Drama Desk Award winner Howard (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, 9 to 5).

IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU tramples on such concepts as diversity, individuality, and personal freedom (photo by Joan Marcus)

It Shoulda Been You opens with Jenny singing “I Never Wanted This,” and she might as well be speaking for the audience as well. Barbara Anselmi’s music, Brian Hargrove’s book and lyrics, Lawrence Yurman’s arrangements, and David Hyde Pierce’s direction are as standard as can be, flat and boring. The story is laden with plot holes, and the jokes, if you could call them that, are lame and repetitive; if someone mentioned a panini station one more time, well, I couldn’t be responsible for my actions. Just because you know your characters and situations are stereotypical retreads doesn’t give you the right to exploit them so shamelessly. And the ending, which purports to tell all of us that we should be who we want to be, to feel good about who we are, that it’s okay to be different, is actually a giant slap in the face not only to the audience but to anyone who has truly had to fight convention, tradition, and society in order to just be themselves. About midway through the show, Georgette asks, “Where Did I Go Wrong.” Where do you want me to begin? It Shoulda Been You gives even the worst of the Borsch Belt a bad name.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: A QUEEN FOR A DAY

SOPRANOS vet David Proval (Richie Aprile) stars in new play, A QUEEN FOR A DAY

SOPRANOS vet David Proval, who played Richie Aprile, stars in new mob play, A QUEEN FOR A DAY

A QUEEN FOR A DAY
Theatre at St. Clement’s
423 West 46th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Thursday – Tuesday through July 26, $49-$99
aqueenforadayplay.com

When made man Giovanni (David Proval) is caught by the feds, he is given a chance to become queen for a day, offered a proffer agreement that can grant him immunity for any squealing — er, information he shares about illegal activities he and his cohorts might be involved in. In this case, Sanford (David Deblinger) wants him to give up crime boss Pasquale (Vincent Pastore), but it’s not that easy to sing — and survive. Written by lawyer and film and theater producer Michael Ricigliano Jr. (Lily of the Feast) and directed by John Gould Rubin (Hedda Gabler, The Cherry Orchard, The Predators’ Ball), A Queen for a Day features Sopranos veterans Pastore (Big Pussy) and Proval (Richie Aprile) along with Labyrinth Theatre cofounder Deblinger (who appeared in one Sopranos episode) and theater and television actress Portia (Johnson). The warehouse set is by Andreea Mincic, with costumes by Bobby Frederick Tilley II and lighting by Isabella F. Byrd.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: A Queen for a Day opened May 3 at Theatre at St. Clement’s, and twi-ny has three pairs of tickets to give away for free. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and favorite play about gangsters to contest@twi-ny.com by Friday, May 8, at 12 noon to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; three winners will be selected at random.

AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION

monologue competition helps keep August Wilsons legacy alive

Annual monologue competition helps keep August Wilson’s tremendous legacy alive

Who: High school students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Seattle
What: Seventh annual August Wilson Monologue Competition
Where: August Wilson Theatre, 245 West 52nd St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
When: Monday, May 4, free, 7:00
Why: The finals for the 2015 August Wilson Monologue Competition will take the stage May 4 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway, honoring the late, legendary playwright by performing two-to-three-minute excerpts from his works, the ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle that includes such modern classics as The Piano Lesson, Fences, Two Trains Running, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and Gem of the Ocean. The finalists, two from each city, will work with longtime Wilson collaborators Kenny Leon and Todd Kreidler on their monologue and also get the opportunity to take in Something Rotten! The judges for the annual event, which began in 2007, are Crystal Dickinson, Brandon J. Dirden, David Gallo, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Pauletta Washington. The winner receives $1,500, with $1,000 for the runner-up and $500 for honorable mention. The evening will also include a live performance by musician Guy Davis.