this week in theater

VENUS IN FUR

The relationship between actor and director becomes an intense psychosexual battle in Roman Polanski’s VENUS IN FUR

VENUS IN FUR (Roman Polanski, 2013)
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at Third St., 212-924-7771
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway between 62nd & 63rd Sts., 212-757-2280
Opens Friday, June 20
www.ifcfilms.com

For his third stage adaptation in ten years, following 1994’s Death and the Maiden and 2011’s Carnage, Roman Polanski has created a marvelous, multilayered examination of the intricate nature of storytelling, consumed with aspects of doubling. David Ives’s Tony-nominated play, Venus in Fur, is about a cynical theater director, Thomas Novachek, who is auditioning actresses for the lead in his next production, a theatrical version of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s psychosexual novella Venus in Furs (which led to the term “sado-masochism”), itself a man’s retelling of his enslavement by a woman. In the film, as he is packing up and about to head home, Thomas (Matthieu Amalric) is interrupted by Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner), a tall blond who at first appears ditzy and unprepared, practically begging him to let her audition even though she isn’t on the casting sheet, then slowly taking charge as she reveals an intimate knowledge not only of his script but of stagecraft as well. An at-first flummoxed Thomas becomes more and more intrigued as Vanda performs the role of Wanda von Dunayev and he reads the part of Severin von Kushemski, their actor-director relationship intertwining with that of the characters’ dangerous and erotic attraction.

Roman Polanski directs wife Emmanuelle Seigner in thrilling stage adaptation of Tony-winning play

Roman Polanski directs wife Emmanuelle Seigner in thrilling stage adaptation of Tony-nominated play

Ives’s English-language play, which earned Nina Arianda a Tony for Best Actress, was set in an office, but Polanski, who cowrote the screenplay with Ives, has moved this French version to an old theater (the Théâtre Récamier in Paris, rebuilt by designer Jean Rabasse) where a musical production of John Ford’s Stagecoach has recently taken place, with some of the props still onstage, including a rather phallic (and prickly) cactus. Polanski has masterfully used the machinations of cinema to expand on the play while also remaining true to its single setting. One of the world’s finest actors, Amalric, who looks more than a little like a younger Polanski, is spectacular as the pretentious Thomas, his expression-filled eyes and herky-jerky motion defining the evolution of his character’s fascination with Vanda, while Seigner, who is Polanski’s wife, is a dynamo of breathless erotic power and energy, seamlessly weaving in and out of different aspects of Vanda. Venus in Fur was shot in chronological order with one camera by cinematographer Paweł Edelman, who has photographed Polanski’s last five feature films, making it feel like the viewer is onstage, experiencing the events in real time. Alexandre Desplat’s complex, gorgeous score is a character unto itself, beginning with the outdoor establishing shot of the theater. The film also contains elements that recall such previous Polanski works as The Tenant, Bitter Moon, Tess, and The Fearless Vampire Killers, placing it firmly within his impressive canon. Polanski was handed Ives’s script at Cannes in 2012, and this screen version was then shown at Cannes for the 2013 festival, a whirlwind production that is echoed in Seigner’s performance; perhaps what’s most amazing is that it is only now finally getting its official U.S. theatrical release, beginning June 20 at the IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Benedick (Hamish Linklater) and Beatrice (Lily Rabe) engage in a stirring battle of words in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (photo by Joan Marcus)

Central Park
Delacorte Theater
Tuesday – Sunday through July 6, free, 8:30
shakespeareinthepark.org

At the beginning of Jack O’Brien’s delightfully witty take on Much Ado About Nothing, the voice of Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis makes the usual announcements about rules concerning photography, cell phones, et al., mystifying members of the cast, who look around curiously, wondering where those sounds are coming from. That joke sets the stage for a playful evening that delves into the nature of love, romance, honor, and fidelity. In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sicily, Don Pedro (Brian Stokes Mitchell) and his army stop by for a break at the home of Messina governor Leonato (John Glover). While soldier Claudio (Jack Cutmore-Scott) falls instantly in love with Leonato’s daughter, Hero (Ismenia Mendes), Leonato’s niece, Beatrice (Lily Rabe), engages in a heated battle of the sexes with soldier Benedick (Hamish Linklater), the words flying back and forth like an intimate swordfight. But when Don Pedro’s rascal of a brother, Don John (Pedro Pascal), who doesn’t believe in true love, purposely gets in the way, everyone’s loyalty is put to a severe test.

Hero (Ismenia Mendes) and Claudio (Jack Cutmore-Scott) contemplate a future together in new MUCH ADO in Central Park (photo by Joan Marcus)

Much Ado has been a Shakespeare in the Park favorite for more than forty years, previously featuring the all-star Benedick-Beatrice pairings of Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes in 1972, Kevin Kline and Blythe Danner in 1988, and Jimmy Smits and Kristen Johnston in 2004. It takes a while for the heat to rise between Linklater (The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night) and Rabe (As You Like It, Steel Magnolias), who previously appeared together in Seminar and the Al Pacino-led Merchant of Venice that moved from the Delacorte to Broadway; Rabe is a firecracker from the start, but Linklater’s clownish approach didn’t start working until some brilliant ad-libbing following a second-act rain delay the night we saw the show. The production is anchored by an expert performance by Glover, mixing elegance with sly humor, along with solid support from a steadfast Stokes Mitchell, a doe-eyed Mendes, a cartoonish John Pankow as local constable Dogberry, and Zoë Winters as alluring lady-in-waiting Margaret. Original music by David Yazbek adds to the fun, as does John Lee Beatty’s set, which includes a vegetable garden, a balcony, and a magic wall; costume designer Jane Greenwood’s dresses for the women are much stronger than the more mundane clothing for the men. Three-time Tony winner O’Brien’s (The Coast of Utopia, Hairspray) Shakespeare in the Park debut is a light and frothy evening that is a whole lot more than nothing.

(In addition to waiting on line at the Delacorte to get free tickets, you can also enter the daily virtual ticketing lottery online here.)

THE KILLER

Michael Shannon stars as Eugène Ionesco everyman Berenger in TNA production of THE KILLER (photo by Gerry Goodstein)

Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center
262 Ashland Pl. between Lafayette Ave. & Fulton St.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 29, $60-$100
866-811-4111
www.tfana.org

Michael Feingold’s new translation of Eugène Ionesco’s 1958 absurdist black comedy, The Killer, is a manic-depressive journey into such extremes as heaven and hell, life and death, and freedom and Fascism. Stage, screen, and television veteran Michael Shannon, who first starred as Ionesco everyman Berenger in a Chicago revival sixteen years ago, suggested doing a new production with Theatre for a New Audience, and it was a good call, a triumph from start to finish. As the three-hour, three-act play opens, Berenger, a schlumpy, shaggy-haired man in a long coat, scarf, and hat (and who would go on to appear in Ionesco’s A Stroll in the Air, Exit the King, and Rhinoceros), is in awe of a Garden of Eden-like paradise the Architect (Robert Stanton) is showing him. “I just knew that in the middle of our gloomy city, right in among all our sad, dark neighborhoods full of mud and dirt, I would find this bright, beautiful area, not rich or poor, with these sunny streets, these avenues streaming with light — this radiant city that you’ve built inside our city,” Berenger says, approaching the edges of the empty stage and reaching out as if the audience were colorful flowers there for the touching. While the Architect is pleased with Berenger’s reaction, he is also quick to note that he is merely a government official doing his job. “It’s all prearranged, all intentional,” the Architect explains. “Nothing can be left to chance.” But soon Berenger is lamenting another side of this heavenly area, which also features a hellish lagoon through a trapdoor where corpses are gathering, the handiwork of a mysterious murderer.

Michael Shannon and BOARDWALK EMPIRE colleague Paul Sparks attempt to get to the bottom of things in existential black comedy (photo by Gerry Goodstein)

The second act takes place in and around Berenger’s room, in a house run by a sarcastic concierge (Kristine Nielsen). “Don’t talk to me about philosophy,” she says. “I once got it into my head to take the advice of the Stoics, and look at everything in perspective. They didn’t help me one bit, not even Marcus Aurelius. In the long run he was no use to anybody, no better or worse than you or me. We’ve all got to find our own way out. That is, if there was one, but there ain’t.” Soon Berenger is met by his friend Edward (Shannon’s Boardwalk Empire colleague Paul Sparks), a creepy, ghostly man dressed all in black, clutching a briefcase in a dastardly manner. They discuss the radiant city, the killer on the loose, negligence, and indifference before deciding to take action. And in the third act, candidate Ma Piper (Nielsen) is stumping for votes, promising “free soup for everybody” and to “de-alienate humanity,” while Edward and Berenger search for the former’s missing briefcase until the police show up and chaos ensues, concluding with an impossibly long monologue delivered by Berenger, looking death in the face.

Kristine Nielsen gets a lift in second of two roles in THE KILLER (photo by Gerry Goodstein)

Shannon, who has been nominated for an Oscar for Revolutionary Road, won two Screen Actors Guild ensemble awards for his portrayal of Nelson Van Alden on Boardwalk Empire, and has been nominated for Lucille Lortel Awards for Bug and Mistakes Were Made, is mesmerizing as Berenger, ranging from ecstatic highs to deep lows as he contemplates joy and sadness, love and loss, and a complicated future. Director Darko Tresnjak, who just won a Tony for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, keeps things peculiar all the way, mixing in bits of German Expressionism, film noir, and Italian neo-Realism on Suttirat Larlarb’s sparse set (which holds several little surprises) as Berenger continues his search for answers that are not easily forthcoming. Nielsen (Vania and Sonya and Masha and Spike) moves eagerly from frumpy concierge to goose-loving political candidate, while Sparks is plenty strange as the plenty strange Edward. At its center, The Killer is a captivating, perplexing allegory structured from the idea of original sin that follows humanity’s fall from grace. It’s also the third triumph in a row (after Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Michael Pennington starring in King Lear) for Theatre for a New Audience in its intimate new home, the shining Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, which has quickly fit right in as part of the growing Fort Greene Garden of Eden that also includes BAM, BRIC, and the Mark Morris Dance Center.

PUBLIC FORUM: SHAKESPEARE IN AMERICA

James Earl Jones, who played the title role in the 1964 Shakespeare in the Park production of OTHELLO, will be back at the Delacorte as special evening honoring the Bard’s influence on America

FREE PUBLIC FORUM
Delacorte Theatre
Monday, June 30, free, 8:00
Tickets available June 30 at 12 noon at the Delacorte and online lottery
www.publictheater.org

The latest free public forum hosted by the Public Theater takes a look at the lasting and still-evolving impact of the works of William Shakespeare on American culture. The special evening is inspired by the new book Shakespeare in America: An Anthology from the Revolution to Now (Library of America, April 2014, $29.95), in which President Bill Clinton writes in the foreword, “Shakespeare only had a fleeting acquaintance with America, judging from his work, which brushed up against the New World on only a couple of occasions. . . . Nevertheless, our engagement with him as been long and sustained: generation after generation of Americans has fallen under his spell.” Taking place Monday, June 30, at the Delacorte, where Shakespeare in the Park is currently presenting a rousing version of Much Ado About Nothing, the forum will include James Earl Jones reading a scene from Othello, fifty years after he starred in a production at the Delacorte; Alec Baldwin reading from Macbeth and other works; Kelli O’Hara and Renée Elise Goldsberry singing a number from Shakespeare in the Park’s Twelfth Night; Steven Pasquale handling the male part of the “Tonight” duet from West Side Story; along with presentations from Elizabeth Alexander, Billy Collins, Brian Dennehy, Colin Donnell, Michael Friedman, André Holland, Harold Holzer, Stephen Merritt, Bryce Pinkham, Caesar Samoyoa, Vijay Seshadri, Sarah Amengual, Colman Domingo, Cynthia Nixon, Annie-B Parson, and Michael Stuhlbarg. “In a nation wrestling with great issues,” Shakespeare in America editor and Public Theater Shakespeare scholar in residence James Shapiro writes in the book’s introduction, “Shakespeare’s works allowed Americans to express views that may otherwise have been hard to articulate – or admit to.”

TICKET ALERT: IT’S ONLY A PLAY

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick will be back onstage together for updated revival of Terence McNally comedy

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick will be back together onstage again for updated revival of Terence McNally comedy

IT’S ONLY A PLAY
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th St.
Previews begin September 4, opening night Thursday, October 9
Tickets on sale now, $72-$147
www.itsonlyaplay.com

Shortly after an early closing notice went out for Terence McNally’s Tony-nominated Mothers and Sons, starring a Tony-nominated Tyne Daly, tickets went on sale for the Broadway debut of an updated version of the four-time Tony-winning playwright’s 1982 comedy, It’s Only a Play. McNally (Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion!), whose other recent works include And Away We Go and Golden Age, which go behind the scenes of theater and opera, respectively, takes the audience backstage for opening night of a new play in the revised revival, which features an all-star cast, including Matthew Broderick as the playwright, Nathan Lane as a television star, Megan Mullally as the producer, Stockard Channing as the leading lady, Micah Stock as a coat-check attendant, and F. Murray Abraham as a powerful critic. Original director and three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien is back at the helm; O’Brien has previously directed McNally’s The Full Monty and Love! Valour! Compassion! and is currently directing Shakespeare in the Park’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s Only a Play begins previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on September 4 for an October 9 opening and will run through January 4.

JUST JIM DALE

Jim Dale waits for applause — of which there’s plenty — in new one-man show (photo by Joan Marcus)

Laura Pels Theatre
Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
111 West 46th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 10, $79
212-719-1300
www.roundabouttheatre.org

Jim Dale shares his love of the footlights in his charming new one-man show, Just Jim Dale. Over the course of one hundred minutes, the Tony- and Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated British actor traces his life and career, from his birth in the small town of Rothwell, “the dead center of England — in every way,” to his more recent fame as the man who voices the Harry Potter audiobooks. Dale, who will turn seventy-nine in August, is a tall, lanky performer who took his father’s words to heart: “Learn how to move,” his dad told him when young Jim Smith, Dale’s real name, expressed interest in show business after they saw Me and My Girl. Dale recalls his early days as a dancer, a British music hall comedian, and a pop singer, including a very funny bit in which he re-creates a pas de deux he was supposed to do with his cousin Ruth in a ballet competition when he was about eleven, but she missed the bus and Jim did the duet himself. Accompanied by co-arranger Mark York on piano, Jim performs songs from Me and My Girl and Barnum, for which he won a Tony playing Phineas Taylor Barnum; sings the music hall standard “Turned Up” and songs that he wrote, including the pop hit “Dicka Dum Dum” and “Georgy Girl”; and tells lots of old, purposely groan-worthy jokes. (“I said, ‘Waiter, what’s this?’ He said, ‘It’s bean soup.’ I said, ‘I don’t care what it’s been. What is it now?’”)

Jim Dale looks back at his life and career in charming Roundabout production (photo by Joan Marcus)

Dale also recites the climactic scene from Noël Coward’s Fumed Oak; gives a tour-de-force lesson in quoting Shakespeare in contemporary language (“If you can’t understand an argument and you say, ‘It’s all Greek to me,’ you’re quoting Shakespeare.”); and performs the powerful opening moments from Peter Nichols’s Joe Egg, getting the audience involved. In fact, throughout the show, Dale interacts with the crowd, occasionally ad-libbing and making everyone feel comfortable and welcome. He’s an amiable fellow, so it’s easy to forgive some of the transitions that need tightening, the timeline that occasionally gets confusing, and a few of the bits that go on too long (the Fumed Oak scene, for example). Dale begins the show, which is directed by Richard Maltby Jr. (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Fosse), with “I Gotta Be Me,” in which he sings, “So I’ve got to be me / I’ve said it before / A juicieful actor / for folks to adore.” Just Jim Dale reveals the many surprising facets of this juicieful actor who is easy to adore.

RAISING THE ROOF

Topol will be among the participants in gala tribute to Sheldon Harnick FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and the National Yiddish Theatre — Folksbiene

Topol will be among the participants in National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene gala tribute to Sheldon Harnick and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

The Town Hall
123 West 43rd St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Monday, June 9, $75-$500, 7:30
www.thetownhall.org
www.nationalyiddishtheatre.org

In the summer of 1964, a little show about a Jewish community struggling to survive in a Russian shtetl played in Detroit, of all places, and Washington, DC, before moving to Broadway in September, where it went on to make history, running for 3,242 performances, with numerous revivals in the decades since and another version expected next year. As part of the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene’s centennial celebration, the longest continuously running Yiddish theater company in the world will pay tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof with a gala June 9 at the Town Hall. The evening will also honor the ninetieth birthday of lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who wrote the words to Jerry Bock’s music; the book was written by Joseph Stein, based on the writings of Sholom Aleichem, and the show was directed by Jerome Robbins. The gala will bring together the largest reunion ever of Fiddler on the Roof alumni, nearly four dozen men and women, including Topol, who played Tevye on Broadway and in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film and just performed the role at the Detroit Opera House, as well as Adrienne Barbeau, Fyvush Finkel, Liz Larsen, Rosalind Harris, Michèle Marsh, Neva Small, Andrea Martin, Austin Pendleton, Pia Zadora, Jerry Zaks, Karen Ziemba, and Louis Zorich. There will also be appearances by Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Bel Kaufman, Jewison, Jeffrey Lyons, Jackie Hoffman, Frank London’s Klezmer All Stars, Joshua Bell, Alisa Solomon, and a thirty-six-children choir. The event’s honorary cochairs are Frank Rich, Harold Prince, who produced the original Fiddler, and Harvey Fierstein, who played Tevye in the 2004 Broadway revival.