this week in theater

TRIBECA FAMILY PRESENTS: ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

Musical adaptation of classic children’s book comes to TPAC on June 1 (photo by Patrick Dwyer)

Tribeca Performing Arts Center
199 Chambers St.
Sunday, June 1, $25, 1:30
www.tribecapac.org
www.theatreworksusa.org

“I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” So begins Judith Viorst’s classic 1972 children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We were hesitant to bring this up — one of the real-life Alexander’s real-life brothers is an FOT (friend of twi-ny) — but on June 1, Theatreworks USA’s musical adaptation is being staged at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. The sixty-minute show, appropriate for ages four and up, features music by Shelly Markham, choreography by Cynthia Thole, and direction by Rob Barron; Viorst wrote the book and lyrics. Theatreworks USA’s repertoire also includes musical adaptations of Charlotte’s Web, A Christmas Carol, Junie B. Jones, Peter Pan, The Lightning Thief, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, among others, and special study guides accompany each production.

THE CITY OF CONVERSATION

Georgetown hostess Hester Ferris’s (Jan Maxwell) carefully orchestrated dinner party doesn’t go quite as planned in new Anthony Giardina play (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse
150 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday – Saturday through July 6, $87
212-362-7600
www.lct.org

Five-time Tony nominee Jan Maxwell gives a whirlwind performance as a Georgetown hostess trying to balance the personal with the political over the course of thirty years in Anthony Giardina’s The City of Conversation. Maxwell (Follies, Coram Boy) stars as Hester Ferris, an elegant liberal who hosts important dinner parties at her fancy home (the set is designed by the incomparable John Lee Beatty), where important men come to smoke, drink, and craft policy away from the craziness of Congress. The play begins in September 1979, as Hester and her sister, Jean Swift (Beth Dixon), prepare for the arrival of Kentucky senator George Mallonee (John Aylward) and his wife, Carolyn (Barbara Garrick); George, a Republican, has important business with Democrat Chandler Harris (Kevin O’Rourke), Hester’s married lover. But when Hester’s son, Colin (Michael Simpson), and his extremely ambitious right-wing girlfriend, Anna Fitzgerald (Kristen Bush), suddenly show up, Hester’s carefully planned party doesn’t go quite as expected, leading to a rift that grows as the play moves to October 1987, during the Reagan presidency, and then on to January 2009 as Barack Obama takes office.

Hester (Jan Maxwell) has more than a few words for Anna (Kristen Bush) as son Colin (Michael Simpson) looks on (photo by Stephanie Berger)

The City of Conversation — the title comes from a Henry James quip about D.C. — looks back at a disappearing past, when the nation’s capital operated very differently from today. “That’s the way it used to be,” Hester tells Anna, relating a story about John F. Kennedy soliciting advice from columnist Joe Alsop regarding Cuba. “A president was able to get out of the White House, come to Georgetown, and learn something just because someone brilliant happened to be at dinner.” Novelist and playwright Giardina’s (Living at Home, Scenes from La Vie de Boheme) first work not specifically drawn from personal experience, The City of Conversation is a superbly acted, well-paced drama about legacy and power, going behind the scenes of a changing Washington where partisanship has affected policy, ended friendships, and torn families apart. Maxwell gives a virtuoso performance, an expert balance of rampant energy and subtle mood shifts as she tries to maintain her relationship with her Republican son and her grandson (Luke Niehaus) while also standing up and fighting for her beliefs. Aylward (The Kentucky Cycle) is excellent as George Mallonee, eating up and spitting out the stereotype of the country-bumpkin southern senator, while O’Rourke (Spoils of War, Checkers) provides solid support as Hester’s significant other. Director Doug Hughes (Outside Mullingar, The Royal Family with Maxwell) knows Giardina well, having directed his works for thirty years, so the play moves seamlessly through the decades, revealing a Washington that has grown dysfunctional perhaps past the point of no return. Be sure to pick up a copy of the Lincoln Center Theater Review, which includes the long, well-researched article “The Doyennes of D.C.” by Sally Bedell Smith as well as contributions from Giardina, Christopher Buckley, Jane Stanton Hitchcock, James Schroeder, and John Guare.

FREE SUMMER THEATER 2014

The Drilling Company have left the parking lot (temporarily) for Bryant Park to put on HAMLET (photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Broadway prices might still be skyrocketing, but every summer in New York City you can count on myriad shows put on by amateur and professional theater companies of all skills and sizes. This year’s crop features all-star Shakespeare in Central Park, of course, in addition to Bard presentations in Bryant Park, Prospect Park, Battery Park, Carroll Park, and a Lower East Side parking lot. There are also plays by the New York Neo-Futurists, Urban Theatre Movement, and the Piper Theatre and, as always, some cutting-edge shows as part of the River to River Festival.

Thursday, May 15
through
Saturday, May 31
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Hamlet, by the Drilling Company, directed by Hamilton Clancy, Bryant Park, 7:00

Thursday, May 29
through
Sunday, June 22
New York Classical Theatre: As You Like It, Central Park, 103rd St. & Central Park West, Thursday – Sunday at 7:00

Thursday, May 29
through
Sunday, June 29
Manhattan Shakespeare Project: Romeo & Juliet, directed by Reesa Graham, Central Park Summit Rock (May 29-31, June 1, 4-7), St. Nicholas Park (June 11-12, 18-19), Sunset Park (June 13-15, 20-22), Morningside Park (June 26-29), 6:00

Tuesday, June 3
through
Sunday, July 6
Shakespeare in the Park: Much Ado About Nothing, starring Matt Bittner, Alex Breaux, Steel Burkhardt, Carisa Cotera, Isabella Curti, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Austin Durant, John Glover, Hamish Linklater, Paco Lozano, David Manis, Kathryn Meisle, Ismenia Mendes, Brian Stokes Mitchell, John Pankow, Pedro Pascal, Lily Rabe, Matthew Russell, Eric Sheffer Stevens, and Zoë Winters, directed by Jack O’Brien, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, Tuesday – Sunday at 8:30

Monday, June 23, 2:00
Tuesday, June 24, 5:00
and
Thursday, June 26, 2:00
River to River Festival — CollaborationTown in Development: Staged Readings of Henry IV by Geo Decas O’Donnell and The Fun Pain by Jordan Seavey, One Liberty Plaza, twelfth floor, free with advance RSVP

Advance RSVP is required for such free River to River productions as LUDIC PROXY (photo by Jeanette Yew)

Monday, June 23, 5:00
Wednesday, June 25, 2:00
and
Friday, June 27, 4:00
River to River Festival: Ludic Proxy by the Play Company, written and directed by Aya Ogawa, One Liberty Plaza, free with advance RSVP

Tuesday, June 24
through
Sunday, June 29
New York Classical Theatre: As You Like It, directed by Stephen Burdman, Prospect Park, Long Meadow near the Picnic House, 7:00

Tuesday, July 1
through
Sunday, July 27
New York Classical Theatre: As You Like It, Battery Park (meet in front of Castle Clinton), Tuesday – Sunday, 7:00

Thursday, July 3, 10, 17
Friday, July 11, 18
and
Saturday, July 5, 12, 19
Piper Theatre: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, directed by Nigel Williams, Old Stone House in Washington Park, 8:00

Sunday, July 6, 13, 20, 9:00
and
Wednesday, July 9, 16, 7:30
Piper Theatre: Mr. Splitfoot, written and directed by John P. McEneny, with original music by Dario Eskenazi, Old Stone House in Washington Park

Wednesday, July 9, 16, 9:00
and
Sunday, July 13, 20, 7:30
Piper Theatre: The Buffalo Nickels Medicine Show, by Mike Shapiro and Kate Prascher, Old Stone House in Washington Park

Thursday, July 10
Broadway in Bryant Park: STOMP, Rocky, Wicked, If/Then, Bryant Park Lawn, 12:30

Thursday, July 10
through
Saturday, July 26
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Twelfth Night, by the Drilling Company, municipal parking lot, corner of Ludlow & Broome Sts.

Thursday, July 17
Broadway in Bryant Park: Pippin, Chicago, Les Misérables, Atomic, Bryant Park Lawn, 12:30

Monday, July 21
through
Friday, August 22
Theatreworks USA: The Lightning Thief, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Sunday – Friday, times vary

Tuesday, July 22
through
Sunday, August 17
Shakespeare in the Park: King Lear, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Annette Bening, Jeremy Bobb, Steven Boyer, Andrew Burnap, Jessica Collins, Glenn Fleshler, Christopher Ghaffari, Ryan-James Hatanaka, Jessica Hecht, Matt Helm, Slate Holmgren, Christopher Innvar, Chukwudi Iwuji, Dave Klasko, John Lithgow, Clarke Peters, Dale Place, Jay O. Sanders, Phillip Shinn, and Eric Sheffer Stevens, directed by Daniel Sullivan, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, Tuesday – Sunday at 8:30

Smith Street Stage celebrates its fifth year of presenting Shakespeare in Carroll Park with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Wednesday, July 23
through
Sunday, August 10
Shakespeare in Carroll Park: Much Ado About Nothing by Smith Street Stage, bring your own seating, Carroll Park, Wednesday – Sunday, 7:00

Wednesday, July 23
through
Saturday, August 16
Hip to Hip Theatre Company: Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by S. C. Lucier, and Cymbeline, directed by David Mold, performed in repertory at different times in parks across the city, including Crocheron Park, Cunningham Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Gantry Plaza, preceded by Kids & the Classics, Wednesday – Sunday

Thursday, July 24
Broadway in Bryant Park: Phantom of the Opera, Piece of My Heart, Cinderella, Avenue Q, Bullets over Broadway, Bryant Park Lawn, 12:30

Monday, July 28
SummerStage Fania Series: John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown, directed by Fisher Stevens, Central Park, 8:00

Tuesday, July 29
through
Saturday, August 9
SummerStage Presents: Urban Theatre Movement’s Handball by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, directed by Brenda Banda, Marcus Garvey Park, Tuesday – Saturday, 8:00

Thursday, July 31
Broadway in Bryant Park: Rock of Ages, Once, Heathers, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bryant Park Lawn, 12:30

Thursday, July 31
through
Saturday, August 16
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: Othello, by the Drilling Company, municipal parking lot, corner of Ludlow & Broome Sts., Thursday – Saturday, 7:00

Thursday, August 7
Broadway in Bryant Park: Jersey Boys, 50 Shades! The Musical, Cabaret, Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter, Bryant Park Lawn, 12:30

Monday, August 11
SummerStage Presents: Urban Theatre Movement’s Handball by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, directed by Brenda Banda, Central Park, 8:00

Wednesday, August 13
through
Saturday, August 16
SummerStage Presents: The New York Neo-Futurists’ Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, East River Park, 8:00

Thursday, August 14
Broadway in Bryant Park: Matilda, On the Town, Mamma Mia!, Motown the Musical, Bryant Park Lawn, 12:30

ACT ONE

Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, and Santino Fontana star in Lincoln Center adaptation of Moss Hart’s ACT ONE memoir (photo by Joan Marcus)

Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 15, $77-$137
212-362-7600
www.lct.org

“These annals are not for those unsentimental about the theatre or untouched by its idiocies as well as its glories,” Moss Hart wrote in his beloved, highly influential 1959 memoir, Act One. “The theatre is not so much a profession as a disease, and my first look at Broadway was the beginning of a lifelong infection.” Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-director James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods) has adoringly adapted the theatrical bible into a superb new play, running through June 15 at the Vivian Beaumont. The play looks back at Hart’s theatrical education as the older Moss (Tony Shalhoub, in one of three roles) watches earlier versions of himself (Matthew Schechter as a boy, Santino Fontana as a naive young man) as his love of theater develops. When Hart was a child, he would sneak off to shows with his aunt Kate (Andrea Martin), much to the chagrin of his English-immigrant father (Shalhoub), who found it a waste of time and money, especially as the family struggled to pay the rent. Hart’s fascination continues through his teenage years, when he gets a job working for jaded old theatrical manager Augustus Pitou (Will LeBow).

Aunt Kate (Andrea Martin) helps foster her nephew’s love of the theater (photo by Joan Marcus)

Following a series of coincidences and luck, Hart is soon collaborating with the famous Broadway playwright and director George S. Kaufman (Shalhoub), writing Once in a Lifetime upstairs in Kaufman’s ritzy home, where the literati come to celebrate themselves. While Hart is a bundle of nerves, worried that his good fortune could come crashing down at any moment, Kaufman is a whole different kind of bundle of nerves, an obsessive-compulsive man who is afraid of germs, washes his hands constantly, and lies on his back on the floor to think. These scenes between Hart and Kaufman are simply rapturous, the heart of the play — and they are also not from the book. Lapine tracked down the first draft of Once in a Lifetime, compared it to the produced version, and imagined what Hart and Kaufman’s collaboration might have been like. The relationship is handled masterfully as their creative process unfurls, continuing with an out-of-town tryout prior to the highly anticipated Broadway opening, fear of failure hovering over their every move.

George S. Kaufman (Tony Shalhoub) and Moss Hart (Santino Fontana) collaborate on their first play together, ONCE IN A LIFETIME (photo by Joan Marcus)

Shalhoub (Golden Boy, Conversations with My Father) is ever stalwart in his multiple roles, transforming from the overheated Barnett Hart to the dapper Kaufman to the mature Moss with simplicity and grace. Fontana (Cinderella, Sons of the Prophet) has the appropriate stars-in-his-eyes look as Moss tries to establish the career of his dreams, sharing his news with such theater friends as Dore Schary (Will Brill) — who would go on to direct the all-star 1963 film adaptation starring George Hamilton as Hart and Jason Robards as Kaufman. Beowulf Boritt’s breathtaking, airy, multilevel rotating set seemingly has a life of its own as it travels from 1914 to 1930, depicting poverty and wealth, success and disappointment. Just as Hart’s memoir was a love letter to the theater, so is this estimable Lincoln Center adaptation, a warmhearted production that steers well clear of the kind of sentimentality that Hart and Kaufman so consciously avoided. “It is hard to realize now in these days of television, movies, radio, and organized play groups what all this meant to a child of those days,” Hart wrote in his memoir, which was always meant to be a single volume despite its title. “It was not only the one available source of pleasure and wonder, it was all of them rolled into one.” Such is the joy of this stage version of Act One as well.

A FABLE

Luke (Gordon Joseph Weiss) and Angela (Samantha Soule) strike a deal in David Van Asselt’s very adult fairy tale (photo by Paula Court)

Cherry Lane Mainstage Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 28, $66
212-989-2020
www.rattlestick.org
www.cherrylanetheatre.org

On the way out of A Fable, Rattlestick artistic director and cofounder David Van Asselt’s very adult fairy tale running at the Cherry Lane, my companion could barely even look at me, muttering, “The less said about this the better.” A Fable is a bewildering fiasco, an antiwar romance complete with the pre-advertised “extreme acts of violence including rape, gunshots, stabbing, and poisoning” as well as a touch of perplexing burlesque. Director Daniel Talbott (Scarcity, Slipping) and the cast seem lost as the fractured narrative attempts to mix Homer, Sophocles, and Shakespeare with the Brothers Grimm in a kitchen-sink approach that even includes a few mind-numbing songs by Liz Swados (Runaways, Trilogy). The story involves a soldier named Jonny (Hubert Point-Du Jour) whose army unit has raped and beaten a young woman named Chandra (Dawn-Lyen Gardner), along with her mother (Liza Fernandez) and father (Alok Tewari), and left them for dead. Of course, Jonny instantly falls for Chandra. Soon Jonny is off on a downward-spiraling journey trying to reunite his true love with her father, each scene more baffling than the previous one. Meanwhile, the proceedings are sort of being manipulated by Angela the angel (Samantha Soule) and Luke the devil (Gordon Joseph Weiss). It’s impossible to tell if this multigenre exercise is supposed to be camp, serious, tongue-in-cheek, or all three, resulting in a confounding mess that digs an early hole it can’t get out of. Indeed, the less said the better, and we’ve already said too much.

LES MISÉRABLES

Javert (Will Swenson) is obsessed with Jean Valjean (Ramin Karimloo) in LES MISÉRABLES (photo by Matthew Murphy)

Imperial Theatre
249 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through October 19, $57-$285
www.lesmis.com/broadway

Let me preface this by publicly admitting that I have never read Victor Hugo’s massive 1820 novel, nor have I seen Richard Boleslawski’s 1935 film (starring Fredric March and Charles Laughton) or any previous stage production, many of which were met by tepid reviews at best. (The show debuted on Broadway in 1987, running for sixteen years, then was revived briefly in 2006.) My introduction to the world of Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert, Cosette and Éponine was via Tom Hooper’s tedious, overblown, yet Oscar-nominated 2012 movie. So my expectations were pretty low when I entered the Imperial Theatre to see this reboot of Cameron Mackintosh’s Broadway phenomenon. I can now understand the mania that surrounds the lavish musical, though I’m not quite part of the cult yet. Les Miz follows the endless pain and anguish of Valjean (Ramin Karimloo), prisoner 24601, who is released after spending nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to help feed his sister’s family. As he tries to make something of his life in early-nineteenth-century France, he is hounded by Javert (Will Swenson), who wants him back behind bars. Over the course of seventeen years (1815-32), Valjean meets Fantine (Caissie Levy), a young woman forced into prostitution; raises her daughter, Cosette (Angeli Negron or McKayla Twiggs as a girl, Samantha Hill as a grown woman); and allies himself with a group of revolutionaries that include Éponine (Nikki M. James), Marius (Andy Mientus), Enjoiras (Kyle Scatliffe), and the brave boy Gavroche (Joshua Colley or Gaten Matarazzo).

LES MISÉRABLES makes another triumphant return to the Great White Way (photo by Matthew Murphy)

Directors James Powell and Laurence Connor have subdued the staging somewhat while including fabulous projections that enhance several scenes, replacing the famed rotating set with a series of dark, wood-based constructions (designed by Matt Kinley) that put the performers front and center. Indeed, as each one takes the stage, the audience cheers the character, who then breaks into familiar songs under the spotlight. There’s more a feeling of competition than usual with musical revivals as the crowd waits with bated breath to see how this new cast handles the beloved score, written by composer Claude-Michel Schönberg with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. (The book is by Alain Boublil.) Karimloo makes an impressive Broadway debut as Valjean, establishing his admirable chops with his early “Soliloquy” and later nailing the epic “Bring Him Home.” (The role is played by Aaron Walpole or Nathaniel Hackmann on Thursdays so Karimloo can rest his voice.) Swenson (Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Hair) plays Javert with just the right boldness, making him a great foil for Valjean. Cliff Saunders and Keala Settle have the requisite amount of fun as the Thénardiers, chewing the scenery with “Master of the House,” Tony winner Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon) gives a heartfelt performance as Éponine, leading the second act with a stirring “On My Own,” and Andy Mientus offers up a fine “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” as Marius. Is this Les Misérables still over the top, at times bombastic, with treacly religious sentiment and sappy melodrama? Absolutely. But that’s also part of the charm, which it has in abundance.

THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN

Cripple Billy (Daniel Radcliffe) and Helen McCormick (Sarah Greene) both dream of becoming Hollywood stars in THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN (photo © Johan Persson)

Cort Theatre
138 West 48th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through July 14, $27 – $142
www.crippleofinishmaan.com

Daniel Radcliffe continues to show his range and distance himself from Harry Potter — if that’s really possible — in the Broadway premiere of Martin McDonagh’s splendid little comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan. Radcliffe, who previously on the Great White Way had a thing for a horse (Equus) and sang and danced his way up the corporate ladder (How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying), stars in McDonagh’s 1996 play as Cripple Billy, an unfortunate orphan with a twisted arm and a near-debilitating limp who spends an inordinate amount of his time looking at cows on the close-knit Irish island of Inishmaan. When gossipmonger Johnnypateenmike (Pat Shortt) arrives at Eileen (Gillian Hanna) and Kate’s (Ingrid Craigie) food shop with news about Hollywood coming to the nearby island of Inishmore, where Robert Flaherty is filming Man of Aran, Billy instantly wants to go and be part of the movie, seeing it as his opportunity to get away from all the abuse heaped upon him and make something of his life. But first he must convince boat owner Babbybobby (Pádraic Delaney) to take him across the water. Also desperate to get out is tough-talking flirtatious redhead Helen McCormick (Sarah Greene), who is sure she will become a star as soon as Hollywood sets its eyes on her. Of course, nothing goes quite as planned in this bittersweet tale.

A production of the new Michael Grandage Company led by Tony-winning director Michael Grandage (Frost/Nixon, King Lear), The Cripple of Inishmaan is a wickedly delightful slice of Irish life, complete with eccentric characters, poetic dialogue, and wacky situations that are firmly entrenched in the tradition of Irish storytelling. Hanna and Craigie are a hoot as the aunties who raised Billy after his parents drowned, Shortt is a riot as the town crier who shares news for food and just might be poisoning his alcoholic mother (June Watson), and Conor MacNeill does a fine turn as Bartley McCormick, Helen’s brother who is obsessed with sweets and telescopes. Greene is sensational as Helen, fiery and sexy whether insulting others or smashing eggs over their head, nearly stealing the show from Radcliffe, who plays Billy with a heartwarming and endearing sensitivity. At its heart, The Cripple of Inishmaan is about overcoming the obstacles one is born with, rising above setbacks while finding one’s place in life, and in a way that applies to Radcliffe’s career as well. At intermission, the security guards start putting up the barricades as fans already begin lining up at the stage door, preparing to wait another hour and a half to get his autograph and snap his picture; it would be a shame if they do so without actually having seen The Cripple of Inishmaan, which will have many saying, “Harry who?”