this week in theater

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: KING LEAR

John Lithgow stars as an emotional King Lear in Shakespeare in the Park production that also features Annette Bening as Goneril and Christopher Innvar as Albany (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Tuesday – Sunday through August 17, free, 8:00
shakespeareinthepark.org

Fut! Another day, another Lear. Over the last several years, New York City has been inundated with major productions of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. There’s been Michael Pennington at Theatre for a New Audience, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Frank Langella at BAM, and Kevin Kline and Sam Waterston at the Public. And now Rochester native John Lithgow, at the age of sixty-eight, has taken on the role of the king and father descending into madness. First performed at Shakespeare in the Park in the Delacorte’s inaugural season, 1962, with Frank Silvera and last seen there in 1973 with James Earl Jones, this latest Public Theater presentation of King Lear features two-time Tony winner Lithgow (The Changing Room, Sweet Smell of Success) as an emotional Lear as he deals with the betrayal of his two conniving older daughters, Goneril (Annette Bening) and Regan (Jessica Hecht), after casting aside his beloved youngest, Cordelia (Jessica Collins). He also exiles his loyal friend, the Earl of Kent (Jay O. Sanders), who reappears in disguise as Caius to protect his lord, the fading king. Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester (Clarke Peters) is misled by his bastard son, Edmund (Eric Sheffer Stevens), into believing his first-born, Edgar (Chukwudi Iwuji), is plotting patricide.

The Fool (Steven Boyer), Caius (Jay O. Sanders), and Lear (John Lithgow) are surprised by Poor Tom (Chukwudi Iwuji) in Public Theater presentation in the park (photo by Joan Marcus)

One of the most fascinating things about King Lear is how adaptable it is, that even when the same dialogue is being used, focus can shift dramatically from one character to another in different productions. In this case, veteran Shakespeare in the Park director Daniel Sullivan (The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice) highlights Goneril and Regan, but Bening, in her return to the New York stage for the first time in a quarter-century, is too stolid as the former, and Hecht (The Assembled Parties, A View from the Bridge) adds too much ironic humor as the latter. Jeremy Bobb’s laconic Oswald is stronger than Stevens’s fanciful Edmund, which is usually the other way around, while Iwuji transforms from carefree Edgar to the pathetic Poor Tom very well. Lithgow is a sad, heart-rending Lear, but Sullivan too often leaves him virtually alone on John Lee Beatty’s set, a large wooden platform backed with a tall screen covered with metallic rods that are like sharp sticks; Lear loses his grandeur too quickly, his minions peeling away as his mind goes. Shakespeare in the Park mainstay Sanders nearly steals the show as Kent/Caius, the only one who truly stands by his king. Steven Boyer is a fine Fool, but there’s not enough of him. The blinding scene is disappointingly tame, but Tal Yarden’s video projections enhance the storm, there’s an exciting sword fight near the end that draws gasps, and percussion played by two men on either side of the stage intensifies the overall ominous mood, resulting in a worthwhile, if not stellar, version of an oft-seen play that, amazingly, rarely bores even after repeated viewings. However, just when it seemed safe to put Lear to bed for at least a little while, it’s been announced that English actor Joseph Marcell will be starring in a production at the NYU Skirball Center this fall by Shakespeare’s Globe, the company that just performed Twelfth Night and Richard III on Broadway to such great acclaim. Fut! indeed. . . .

(In addition to waiting on line at the Delacorte, the Queens Museum, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Lehman College, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and the Public Theater to get free tickets, you can also enter the daily virtual ticketing lottery online here.)

BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY

BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY features a stellar cast led by the wonderful Stephen McKinley Henderson (photo by Kevin Thomas Garcia)

Atlantic Theater Company
Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Monday – Saturday through August 23, $20-$65
866-811-4111
www.atlantictheater.org

Longtime character actor Stephen McKinley Henderson, a staple in the work of August Wilson, finally gets the big-time starring role he deserves in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Between Riverside and Crazy. In the Atlantic Theater Company production, which has been extended through August 23, Henderson, who was nominated for a supporting actor Tony in 2012 for his role as Bono in Fences and more recently played Bobo in the Tony-nominated revival of A Raisin in the Sun, both opposite Denzel Washington, stars as Walter “Pops” Washington, a former beat cop whose career ended after a fellow police officer shot him multiple times. As the play opens, the portly Pops is sitting in a wheelchair at the kitchen table in his broken-down, rent-stabilized Riverside Drive railroad apartment. But it turns out that he can walk fine; the wheelchair belonged to his wife, who passed away just before Christmas. Meanwhile, the much-coveted apartment has been falling apart ever since his wife’s death, as evidenced by a wobbly Christmas tree still in the living room. Pops lives with his grown son, the recently paroled Junior (Ray Anthony Thomas), who is secretive and argumentative; Oswaldo (Victor Almanzar), a tough-talking young man in recovery who Pops has taken in; and Lulu (Rosal Colón), Junior’s pregnant girlfriend. It’s been eight years since Pops was shot in a controversial off-duty incident that he claims was racially motivated; over that time, the city has made financial offers to settle the case, but Pops has rejected every one on principle. “An honorable man can’t be bought off,” he tells his son. “An honorable man doesn’t just settle a lawsuit ‘No Fault’ and lend his silence to hypocrisy and racism and the grievous violation of all our civil rights.” His former partner, Audrey (Guirgis regular Elizabeth Canavan), and her fiancée, Lieutenant Caro (The Sopranos’ and Nurse Jackie’s Michael Rispoli) come for dinner and try to persuade him to take the deal, but Pops is a stubborn, unpredictable man with a unique view of the world. Nevertheless, he sees a different light after a visit from the new church lady (Liza Colón-Zayas).

Pops (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and Lulu (Rosal Colón) share a moment in new Stephen Adly Guirgis play at the Atlantic (photo by Kevin Thomas Garcia)

Guirgis, who grew up on Riverside Drive, is the former co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company, for which he wrote five plays directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (including Our Lady of 121st Street and Jesus Hopped the “A” Train), followed by his Broadway debut, The Motherf**ker with the Hat. Between Riverside and Crazy again demonstrates his sharp ear for dialogue and his keen sense of characterization as he creates complex, realistic situations filled with surprise twists and turns. Henderson is fabulous as Pops, alternating between a sweet gentleness and a selfish anger, both populated with four-letter words that emerge poetically; the audience never knows what he’ll say or do next, making the play wonderfully uncomfortable. The supporting cast is excellent as well, as Guirgis and director Austin Pendleton (Gidion’s Knot, Orson’s Shadow) give each character his and her moment to shine on Walt Spangler’s rotating, somewhat ramshackle set. But best of all, everyone keeps the spotlight centered on Henderson as Pops, a lovable yet intensely frustrating individual played by an actor of tender and intelligent depth and charm.

TWI-NY TALK: JOE WISSLER

Joe Wissler is back at the Fringe Festival in Kim Ehly’s semiautobiographical comedy, BABY GIRL

New York International Fringe Festival
The Kraine Theater
25 East Fourth St. between Second Ave. & Bowery
August 8, 10, 14, 18, 24, $18
www.joewissler.com
www.babygirltheplay.com

The first thing one notices about Joe Wissler is his size. At six-foot four, two hundred and twenty-five pounds, he usually stands out in a crowd. The next things that become quickly apparent are his gregarious nature and welcoming sense of humor. But the Manhattan-born, Brooklyn-raised character actor gets very serious when discussing the details of his chosen career. “What I love about Joe is his professionalism and dedication to his craft, which he clearly loves,” playwright and casting agent David Bellantoni says about Wissler, who was recently nominated for Best Actor at the Unchained one-act theater festival for starring as a Brian Dennehy-like tough guy in Bellantoni’s Laundry, which took the Audience Award. “Most actors, no matter where they are from, think they can pull off a New York character – accent, attitude, swagger,” Bellantoni continues, “but in performance you can almost always tell they’re from somewhere else. Joe is the real deal, the genuine article. It was a pleasure to work with him and I would do so again in a heartbeat.”

Wissler is very much the real deal. In order to start dating (and eventually marry) Grace Argentina, he had to get past her eleven not-so-friendly brothers. Grace and Joe’s son is a Suffolk County police officer, their daughter a Nassau County teacher and track coach. And Wissler continues winning better and better roles in an extremely difficult business. This week Wissler, who has appeared onstage with John Amos (Good Times, Roots) in Felony Friday at the Fringe Festival, on Law and Order: SVU on television, and in such indie films as Waiting for the Blackout and Abscond Valley, is back at the Fringe in Baby GirL, Kutumba Theatre Project artistic director Kim Ehly’s semiautobiographical comedy about adoption, coming out as a lesbian, and searching for home. In between rehearsals for the show, which runs August 8, 10, 14, 18, and 24 at the Kraine Theater, Wissler discussed his acting career, his size, his deep, profound love of his craft, and more.

twi-ny: You were last at the Fringe in 2011, when you starred with John Amos in Felony Friday. What was that experience like?

Joe Wissler: In a word, it was amazing. Of course, I have been a fan of John’s since I can remember. I was so glad when he came to the rehearsals ready to work like any other actor. No pretense, no attitude. We shared most of his scenes, so we rehearsed quite a bit together. I’m happy to say that we became friends and remain so to this day.

twi-ny: This year you’re appearing at the Fringe in Baby GirL. Can you tell us a little about your role and how you got the part? It’s a different kind of show for you.

JW: I actually play two roles in the show. In the first act I play Dave, adopted father to Ashley, a very traditional, head of the family, “meat and potatoes Republican” living in South Florida in the late 1960s to 1980s. I dote on Ashley, which is why she comes out to me first, that she is a lesbian. Things take a turn from that moment on. In act two, I play Henry, husband of Ashley’s biological mother. Henry is a simple man who doesn’t say too much, thanks to the nonstop talking of his wife.

I auditioned for the roles, with absolute abandon. In one flashback scene, I jump into four different scenarios in a matter of one minute. There is just no way to win a part like that unless you are willing to completely commit to that individual moment. There was no playing it safe at this audition.

twi-ny: What is it that resonated with you to make you want to work on this play?

JW: Baby GirL is a play about struggling. Ashley struggles to find her sexual identity, her birth parents, and her life. Dave and Mary struggle to conceive a child, raise a child the way they think she should be raised, and then break away from the child they don’t understand. Struggle is what creates conflict, which is what creates drama. The beautiful thing about this play is there is lots of comedy mixed in with the drama, and a fine cast that understands how to work both the comedy and the drama so it will move the audience to laughter and tears. I’m sure the audience will walk away from this show with a lot to think about and talk about. And hopefully it will help someone out there struggling with his or her own personal feelings, be that if they need to come out, accept someone who comes out, or just choose to live the life they want for themselves.

Joe Wissler stars in Florida comedy hit making New York premiere at the Fringe Festival

Joe Wissler plays two roles in Florida comedy hit making New York premiere at the Fringe Festival

twi-ny: You’re six-foot-four, two hundred twenty-five pounds, and from Brooklyn, yet you’ve appeared in a wide variety of genres on film and television and onstage. Do you think your size is a hindrance or an advantage?

JW: [laughs] My size can be both an advantage and a hindrance. Most times I find it to be an advantage. Of course, I can remember times when it worked against me. Many years ago, when I was a child, I started growing at an unbelievable rate. I can remember walking into auditions at ten years old and being taller than the man auditioning to play my father. More recently, I was being considered for a great part in a film. I was to play Jon Voight’s brother. Before production began, I was told that Jon Voight would not be doing the film. Instead, Malcolm McDowell was the new lead. Jon Voight and I are almost the same size, but I am seven inches taller than Malcolm McDowell. Apparently, size did matter. I always find a way to fit my dimensions into the skin of the character I am playing.

What about your accent?

JW: [laughs again] What accent? In my day-to-day life, my New York accent is certainly apparent. I have learned to eliminate it for professional purposes. Just listen to me say “You didn’t talk much at dinner” in Baby GirL.

twi-ny: What’s more fun – playing the cop or the mob guy?

JW: I love acting. I love the characters that I get to play. I humanize the characters by a simple yet effective method. I find myself in the character, I find the character in me and find myself as the character in the situation. With that, anything is possible. The rest just depends on the costume.

twi-ny: You were recently nominated for Best Actor in David Bellantoni’s Laundry, in which the cast really seemed to bond. You’re a gregarious fellow; what’s it like when a group of actors don’t really come together on a set?

JW: Laundry was a great experience. A set is a family. It’s very important to make it work, with everyone involved – cast, crew, writers, production, and director. We are all working toward a common goal: To do the best work we are capable of. Nothing on set or behind the scenes should distract from that goal. That being said, jealousies and insecurities are always possible. While studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, I was taught that just like any other walk of life, you will meet all kinds, just more so in acting. Concentrate on your work and leave the negativity to those who need it. I only experienced that kind of situation on one project. Hopefully, never again.

twi-ny: You’ve also done stand-up comedy; do you still go back in front of that brick wall?

JW: I have not in quite a while. I am thinking about performing stand-up in L.A. on my next trip there in September.

twi-ny: What do you have coming up after Baby GirL?

JW: I will have a couple of weeks here in New York City to enjoy the rest of the summer. I am cowriting a play that I hope to finish this year. I will be traveling back and forth to the West Coast. My L.A. agent, Marlene Hartje, is amazing. I can’t wait to get back out there and see what she has waiting for me. There are a few plays being produced here in New York that I would love to finish the year out with. John Amos and I have been trying to coordinate our schedules for a couple of years, with the hopes of mounting a great two-man play a friend of his wrote. And of course, I am constantly on the hunt for a production of John Logan’s Red that is casting.

FRINGE NYC: DANCING MONK IPPEN

DANCING MONK IPPEN tells the story of an itinerant monk spreading Buddhism using song and dance in thirteenth-century Japan

The New York International Fringe Festival
The Sheen Center – the Loretto
18 Bleecker St. at Elizabeth St.
August 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, $18
www.fringenyc.org
www.fuuunkabocha.yokochou.com

In the thirteenth century, itinerant monk and former samurai Ippen Shōnin traveled around Japan, spreading Pure Land Buddhism by using Nembutus dance and song. His story is now being told in Fuuun Kabocha No Basha’s Dancing Monk Ippen, a musical playing at the eighteenth annual New York International Fringe Festival. The eighty-minute show, directed by Hiroaki Doi, features book and lyrics by Takaaki Shigenobu, music by Tokuaki Nakajima, and choreography by Chie Nakagawa. The show runs August 8-15 at the Loretto theater at the Sheen Center.

Update: Takaaki Shigenobu’s J-pop opera, Dancing Monk Ippen, is a swift, fun sojourn through the life of Shōjumaru, born into thirteenth-century Japan’s bitter civil wars between the Shogunate and the Imperial Army, which severely rend his family, his father and uncle fighting on different sides. Son of a noble family, the young man is sent to a Buddhist temple to protect his life. There he is given a new name, Ippen, and soon develops a unique brand of Buddhism that includes singing and dancing to bring peace and understanding to his fellow human beings. Playfully directed by Hiroaki Doi, Dancing Monk Ippen is energetically acted by the Fuuun Kabocha No Basha company, led by Ikumi Sugamoto as the title character, Motonori Mano as his comic sidekick, Mitsuaki Susa as his father, and Ayako Murai as temple monk Shotatsu. The musical numbers, which occasionally descend into treacly ballads, are sweetly choreographed by Chie Nakagawa and charmingly performed by the enthusiastic cast. Unfortunately, however, everything is in Japanese, with no translations, save for just a handful of hard-to-hear English descriptions read by a disembodied female voice in between certain scenes. The program, which comes with an origami gift, includes a detailed synopsis in case you want to know in advance what is going to happen. The show ends boisterously, with the actors dancing around the audience, cheerfully thanking the exiting crowd.

PHOENIX

Julia Stiles and James Wirt deal with the aftereffects of a one-night stand in PHOENIX

Cherry Lane Mainstage Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Monday – Saturday through August 23, $56-$66
212-989-2020
www.phoenixtheplay.com
www.cherrylanetheatre.org

At the beginning of Phoenix, Scott Organ’s two-character, one-act play, Sue (Julia Stiles) and James (James Wirt) meet up for the first time after what both agree was a fun one-night stand a month earlier. But Sue has some surprising news for James, something that shocks, confuses, and delights him. For ninety minutes, the two very attractive people examine the central issue from all angles as they contemplate whether they have any kind of a future together. Clearly, there appears to be a future for the play itself. There was major buzz in the air at one of the early previews as Al Pacino took an aisle seat in the intimate Cherry Lane Mainstage to check it out. (One of the producers, Poverty Row Entertainment, is run by filmmakers Julie Pacino, Al’s daughter, and Jennifer DeLia, the director of Phoenix ; the other producers are Rian Patrick Durham and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.) The show officially opens on August 7 for a limited run through August 23, and it is being turned into a film as well, directed by Amy Redford, daughter of Robert. Stiles and Wirt are also set to appear in Poverty Row’s The First, a biopic about Mary Pickford in which Stiles plays Frances Marion and Wirt is Charlie Chaplin; Lily Rabe stars as Pickford.

PIECE OF MY HEART: THE BERT BERNS STORY

The forgotten legacy of Bert Berns is brought to colorful life in new musical (photo by Jenny Anderson)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Irene Diamond Stage
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 31, $31.50 – $99.50
212-244-7529
www.pieceofmyheartmusical.com
www.signaturetheatre.org

Art imitates life in the engaging, bittersweet off-Broadway musical Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story. In a prolific period between 1961 and 1967, Bert Berns wrote and/or produced more than two dozen big-time pop hits, recorded by such singers and bands as the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, the Drifters, Janis Joplin, the Animals, Solomon Burke, the Isley Brothers, and Van Morrison, while also founding the seminal Atlantic offshoot BANG Records. Born and raised in the Bronx, Berns died in 1967 at the age of thirty-eight, and today his legacy is all but nonexistent, although his surviving family is in the midst of rebuilding his reputation with this show; the first major authorized biography, Joel Selvin’s Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues; and the upcoming documentary BANG — The Bert Berns Story. In Piece of My Heart, Leslie Kritzer stars as Jessie, Berns’s fictional daughter who receives an unexpected call that her mother, Ilene (Linda Hart), is going to close up Bert’s Broadway office and sell the rights to all of his songs. Disturbed by her mother’s intentions, Jessie, who didn’t know anything about the office, heads to New York City, where she finds her father’s former manager and right-hand man, Wazzel (Joseph Siravo), waiting for her. Wazzel tells Jessie how Bert (Zak Resnick), vocalist Hoagy Lands (Derrick Baskin), and the young Wazzel (Bryan Fenkart) got started, with the events unfolding right in front of them. Jessie sees her father going to Cuba and working with a revolutionary named Carlos (Sydney James Harcourt), meeting high-powered producer Jerry Wexler (Mark Zeisler), challenging the legendary Phil Spector, and falling in love with Ilene (Teal Wicks), a blonde dancer who would become Bert’s wife and Jessie’s mother. But when the current-day Ilene shows up at her husband’s office, she kicks out Wazzel and has a somewhat different tale to tell Jessie while trying to convince her that signing over the songs is the right thing to do, leaving Jessie trapped in the middle as she learns more and more about her father.

Jessie (Leslie Kritzer) wonders what her father (Zak Resnick) was really like in PIECE OF MY HEART (photo by Jenny Anderson)

For much of its two hours and twenty minutes (with intermission), Piece of My Heart walks that fine line between bio show and vanity project. As pointed out numerous times in Daniel Goldfarb’s fairly standard book, Berns was determined to become famous; also, knowing that he was living on borrowed time because of a heart problem, he often said, “My children will know me by my music.” The show is produced by Berns’s son, Brett, and daughter, Cassandra, with the express purpose of finally bringing fame to their father, and the narrative sometimes gets bogged down with whitewashed scenes that turn Berns into a kind of heroic, misunderstood figure. It’s not helped by the casting of Resnick (Mamma Mia!, Disaster!) in the title role; while his singing packs a powerful punch, his acting is akin to a David Wright press conference, all white-bread clichés with no nuance. However, the rest of the cast of seasoned pros is outstanding, including Hart (Hairspray, Anything Goes) and Wicks (Wicked, Jekyll & Hyde) as the feisty Ilene, Siravo (Conversations with My Father, The Light in the Piazza) and Fenkart (Memphis) as the tough-talking Wazzel, De’Adre Aziza (Passing Strange) as Candace, Berns’s sexy first love, and Kritzer (A Catered Affair, Legally Blonde) as a kind of onstage stand-in for the audience. Oh, and let’s not forget about the music, which is performed admirably by a live band led by Lon Hoyt; the songs range from the somewhat obscure to the familiar to the super famous, but it’s best if you go without knowing what they are so you can be surprised by each new well-choreographed musical number (by director Denis Jones) on Alexander Dodge’s simple but effective sets, energized by Ben Stanton’s colorful lighting. The songs are listed in the Playbill and detailed on a large board outside the Signature’s Irene Diamond theater, but it’s better to read about them after the show, which got an instant and rousing standing ovation the night we went.

HOT! FESTIVAL: KIDNAP ME

Tyler Ashley’s KIDNAP ME premieres July 21 at the HOT! Festival at Dixon Place (photo by Catherine Sun)

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street
Monday, July 21, $12-$15, 7:30
Festival continues through August 5
www.dixonplace.org
www.tylerashleyinfo.tumblr.com

Things are liable to get even hotter when Tyler Ashley premieres his latest work, Kidnap Me, at the twenty-third annual HOT! Festival: The NYC Celebration of Queer Culture. Last summer, the Brooklyn-based choreographer and dancer shed his clothes for Swadhisthana: The Event at NYPAC; the multidisciplinary genderqueer artist has also presented pieces on the High Line and Times Square while also dancing with STREB, Walter Dundervill, and others. His first evening-length work, the ninety-minute Kidnap Me, is a durational performance, inspired by Béla Tarr’s 2011 film The Turin Horse and the music of the late African American composer and performer Julius Eastman, that examines hunger, family, and stardom, focusing on the creative process. In his artist statement for New York Live Arts, Ashley explains, “I conduct experiments in desire, endurance, vulnerability, and determination by creating image-based dances inspired by sport, nightlife, physical labor, and excessiveness. . . . I work to push myself closer to the audience, challenging what they may expect and unsettling the performance space. I exploit the chaos present in the search for resolution.” Kidnap Me premieres July 21 at Dixon Place and will be performed by Ashley, Aranzazu Araujo, Sarah McSherry, Diego Montoya, Shane O’Neill, Rakia Seaborn, and Gillian Walsh. HOT! continues at Dixon Place through August 5 with such other programs as Lucas Brooks’s Cootie Catcher, Vincent Caruso’s Clueless, Joe Castle Baker’s Just Let Go, Anna/Kate’s Fear City / Fun City, Jack Feldstein’s Three Months with Pook, and J. Stephen Brantley’s Chicken-Fried Ciccone: A Twangy True Tale of Transformation.