this week in theater

LUCKY GUY

John Cotter (Peter Gerety) mentors Mike McAlary (Tom Hanks) on New York City journalism in LUCKY GUY (photo by Joan Marcus)

Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 16, $87-$152
www.luckyguyplay.com

Tom Hanks makes a terrific Broadway debut as New York City journalist Mike McAlary in Nora Ephron’s consistently entertaining Lucky Guy. Hanks, who won back-to-back Oscars in 1993-94 for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump and starred in Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, uses his general likability to endear the audience to McAlary, a fiercely ambitious reporter who shifted between New York Newsday, the Daily News, and the Post from 1985 to 1998, breaking some of the most important stories of that time, including the 77th Precinct corruption scandal, which made his career. The show is set up as a kind of Irish wake, with a group of McAlary’s colleagues drinking and telling stories about the Pulitzer Prize winner’s life and dedication to his chosen field. Among them are Courtney B. Vance as his longtime editor, Hap Hairston; Hanks’s former Bosom Buddies costar Peter Scolari as Daily News scribe Michael Daly; Peter Gerety as mentor John Cotter; Michael Gaston as subway columnist Jim Dwyer; Richard Masur as bombastic newspaper editors Jerry Nachman and Stanley Joyce; and Danny Mastrogiorgio as journalist Bob Drury. Maura Tierney, in her Great White Way debut as well, plays McAlary’s wife, Alice, who spent many a night worrying about his safety as he investigated dangerous stories, while Christopher McDonald is his fast-talking lawyer, Eddie Hayes. David Rockwell’s scenic design evokes the look and feel of a city newsroom, with lots of smoking, cursing (much of it courtesy of Deirdre Lovejoy as reporter Louise Imerman), drinking, and fighting for “the wood” — the story that is teased at the top of the front page, while a big logo at the rear of the stage announces which paper McAlary is writing for at that time.

Journalist Mike McAlary (Tom Hanks) becomes part of the story in LUCKY GUY (photo by Joan Marcus)

Ephron, who spent part of her early career as a journalist, did plenty of research in writing Lucky Guy, and she pulls no punches in portraying McAlary — whose battle with cancer while still trying to do his job was an inspiration to Ephron, who was fighting myelodysplastic syndrome while finishing this play — warts and all, exploring his jealousy of Jimmy Breslin, his lack of loyalty to his employers, his near-fatal drunk-driving accident, and his famous failure when he refuses to back off of a story that implodes in his face. Ephron also avoids overplaying the sympathy card as the cancer begins to eat away at him. Director George C. Wolfe keeps things moving smoothly even as the characters go from reenacting the various tales to addressing the audience directly, sharing personal insights into McAlary and New York City journalism. Despite being about a man who tragically died too young, at the age of forty-one, written by a woman who also died tragically, at the age of seventy-one, both of whom still had a lot to give to this world, Lucky Guy manages to be a funny, irreverent, and, ultimately, uplifting two hours, led by an immensely talented actor who has seamlessly made the transition from Hollywood to Broadway.

THE MOUND BUILDERS

August Howe (David Conrad), his wife, Cynthia (Janie Brookshire), and his sister, D.K. (Danielle Skraastad), can’t separate the past from the present and the future in Signature revival of Lanford Wilson’s THE MOUND BUILDERS (photo by Richard Termine)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through April 14, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

In 1970, Joni Mitchell sang, “Don’t it always seem to go / that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone / They paved paradise / and put up a parking lot.” That essentially sums up Lanford Wilson’s The Mound Builders, currently being revived at the Signature Theatre. One of Wilson’s personal favorites and winner of the 1975 Obie Award for Distinguished Playwriting, The Mound Builders is not an easy play, as evidenced by a Q&A following the April 4 performance, when the dramaturg and members of the cast were barraged with questions from the audience about what they all just saw, what it meant, and why the first act “meandered, meandered, and meandered.” But the players handled it all in stride, as they do the show itself. The Mound Builders takes place in February 1975 in Blue Shoals, Illinois, where Professor August Howe (David Conrad) and his right-hand man, Dr. Dan Loggins (Zachary Booth), are leading an archaeological dig after the discovery of a pre-Columbian civilization that surfaced as construction crews came in to build a new hotel and resort center. The story is actually told in a series of flashbacks, as Howe dictates a slideshow onto a tape recorder for his assistant, the scenes unfolding after he introduces them for the unseen “Diane.” Howe and his wife, Cynthia (Janie Brookshire), who has taken all the photos, are staying with their young daughter, Kirsten (Rachel Resheff), in a home owned by Chad Jasker (Will Rogers) and his family, who are in line to make quite a windfall from the new development. Also in the house are Dan’s pregnant gynecologist wife, Dr. Jean Loggins (Lisa Joyce), and novelist D. K. “Delia” Eriksen (Danielle Skraastad), August’s deeply troubled sister who has recently been released from an institution. As August and Dan continue to uncover remarkable artifacts of the past, they fail to connect with the present, as the jittery Chad makes moves on Cynthia, Jean, and a clueless Dan, and a thunderous rainstorm threatens to flood the area.

Dan (Zachary Booth) and Chad (Will Rogers) toast to very different futures in THE MOUND BUILDERS (photo by Richard Termine)

Part of the Signature’s Legacy Program honoring the tenth anniversary of Wilson’s 2002-3 tenure as playwright in residence, The Mound Builders takes a while to get going, but once it does, it becomes a compelling character study that explores people’s needs and desires, from love, money, and sex to fame, family, and just plain acknowledgment. The ricketiness of set designer Neil Patel’s somewhat ramshackle wooden-slatted house corresponds well with the fragility of the characters’ relationships with one another, as secrets rise to the surface like the ancient objects August and Dan are obsessed with finding. Director Jo Bonney jumps up the action in the second act, in which the house is curiously askew from its previous position, foreshadowing what is to come between the characters. Although Wilson’s legacy — the Missouri-born playwright passed away in 2011 at the age of seventy-three — is being better served right now by the Roundabout’s wonderful revival of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Talley’s Folly at the Laura Pels, The Mound Builders is still a more-than-able production of a complicated play. By the end, the characters indeed don’t know what they’ve got till it’s gone, each of their individual paradises paved over, lost forever.

LORCA IN NEW YORK: A CELEBRATION

Multiple locations
April 5 – July 21, free – $25
www.lorcanyc.com

In 1929-30, Spanish poet and playwright Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (1898-1936) lived in New York City, where he studied at Columbia, writing the surrealist play The Public (El público) and the seminal book Poet in New York, which includes “Nocturne of the Brooklyn Bridge”: “No one sleeps in the sky. No one. / No one sleeps. / The creatures of the moon sniff and circle their cabins. / Live iguanas will come to bite the men who don’t dream / and he who flees with broken heart will find on the corners / the still, incredible crocodile under the tender protest of the stars.” In the preface to Pablo Medina and Mark Statman’s translation of the book, Edward Hirsch concludes, “The testament he left behind is a fierce indictment of the modern world incarnated in city life, but it is also a wildly imaginative and joyously alienated declaration of residence.” The great writer’s time in Gotham is being honored with “Lorca in NY: A Celebration,” more than three months of some two dozen special literary events being held in the city that was, for a brief time, Lorca’s home. The festival kicks off April 5 with the opening of “Back Tomorrow: Federico García Lorca / Poet in New York” in the New York Public Library’s Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery; running through July 20, the free exhibit features original manuscripts, letters, photos, drawings, and more. On April 7 at 7:00 ($10), La Bruja, Simply Rob, Los Gitanos Juveniles, Anthony Carrillo, Raphael Cuascut, Angel Rodriguez Sr., Julio Rodriguez, Mario Rodriguez, and Alex La Salle will gather together for “Lorca Extravaganza” at Bowery Poetry Club for an evening of musical and spoken-word interpretations of Lorca’s writings and his personal favorite songs. On April 8 at 6:00, Gonzalo Sobejano will deliver the free lecture “Memoria de Lorca, A través de mis años en la Universidad de Columbia (Memory of Lorca, Through My Years at Columbia University)” at Columbia, followed by a cocktail reception.

The legacy of Federico García Lorca and his book POET IN NEW YORK will be celebrated in wide-ranging multidisciplinary festival

On April 9 at 7:00 ($15), Instituto Cervantes will host “Lorca’s Universe,” a concert with guitarist José María Gallardo del Rey and violinist Anabel Garcia del Castillo. On April 16 (and continuing through May 30), “Lorca in Vermont” opens at the CUNY Graduate Center, examining Lorca’s time spent in Vermont with Philip Cummings; in conjunction with the opening, Joan Jonas, Caridad Svich, Christopher Maurer, Ben Sidran, Mónica de la Torre, and Eliot Weinberger will come together on April 16 at 6:00 (free) for the panel discussion “Interpreting Lorca” in CUNY’s Martin E. Segal Theatre. On April 19 at 7:00 (free), Jose García Velasco will deliver the lecture “Lorca, Dalí, Buñuel & Eternal Youth: Life in the Residencia de Estudiantes” at Instituto Cervantes. On May 1 from 2:00 to 9:00 (free), “After Lorca: A Day of Poetry and Performance” at CUNY features LaTasha Diggs, Rob Fitterman, Eileen Myles, Judah Rubin, Sara Jane Stoner, Aynsley Vandenbroucke, and the Aynsley Vandenbroucke Movement Group offering their own responses to Lorca’s legacy. On June 4 at 7:00 ($25), Live from the NYPL director Paul Holdengräber hosts “Celebrating Federico García Lorca.” Overnight on June 4-5 (free), David Bestué will make his way through the streets of the city, creating “an echo to Lorca’s poems” in honor of the 115th anniversary of the poet’s birth. On June 5 ($25), “Words and Music: Patti Smith and Friends” will present “A Birthday Concert for Lorca” at Bowery Ballroom. On June 10 at 8:00 ($8), an all-star group of writers will gather at the Poetry Project for “Poet in New York: Reading Lorca”; among the participants reading from the book will be Paul Auster, Aracelis Girmay, John Giorno, Wayne Koestenbaum, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Mónica de la Torre, and Frederic Tuten. On July 9 at 1:15 at the NYPL (free), Sharonah Fredrick will discuss “Lorca, Jews, and African-American: From Romance to Racism or Simple Misunderstanding?” And if that weren’t enough, there are other events as well, including a walking tour, a film series, and more, all organized by the Fundación Federico García Lorca, which is run by Lorca’s family, and Acción Cultural Española.

ANN

Holland Taylor stars as Ann Richards in one-woman show she also wrote

Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday – Saturday through June 9, $75-$125
212-362-7600
www.lct.org
www.theannrichardsplay.com

Fiery politician Ann Richards was a true star, giving a memorable keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention and later serving as governor of Texas. Emmy-winning actress Holland Taylor (The Practice, Two and a Half Men) embodies the dedicated reformer in the one-woman show Ann, which she also wrote. Based on six years of intensive research, Ann opens with Taylor, wearing an eye-catching white suit and Richards’s trademark white coiffure, as Ann delivering an address at a fictional college, the audience standing in for the student body. She depicts Richards as an engaging, entertaining, very smart, and open and honest woman not afraid to speak her mind about her professional and personal life, including discussing her severe alcoholism and painful divorce. The play, directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein (resident director of War Horse), slows down considerably when Richards is in her gubernatorial office, answering multiple phone calls, yelling for her assistant, and shuffling through papers. Although it’s meant to show her as a bold and brash administrator fighting for the little person, it’s repetitive and not nearly as interesting as when she’s reflecting on her life and career directly with the audience. The play comes alive again when she returns to the podium, discussing her battle with cancer and hope for the future of America. Taylor is dazzling as Richards, capturing the spirit and dedication of a sharp, brave woman who was determined to make a difference and did. In an author’s note, Taylor writes that Richards is “someone I do think of now as a friend I know pretty well, and love”; after two hours, the audience is bound to feel the same.

SCOTLAND WEEK 2013

David Eustace’s captivating “Highland Heart” exhibit will be on view at Hudson Studios April 5-7 (© David Eustace)

SCOTLAND WEEK / TARTAN WEEK
Multiple venues
Through April 21
www.scotland.org
www.scotlandshop.com

The sixth annual Scotland Week, also known as Tartan Week, kicks into high gear this weekend, celebrating Scottish art and culture with a diverse group of events taking place all over the city. On Friday, former minesweeper and prison guard David Eustace will unveil a new collection of photographs, “Highland Heart,” stunning black-and-white images of the Western Islands, at Hudson Studios in Chelsea. On Saturday morning at 8:00, some ten thousand people are expected to take part in the 10K Scotland Run in Central Park, followed by the Kirkin o’ the Tartan and Pre-Parade Brunch at the Church of Our Saviour and the Tartan Day Parade, which will make its way up Sixth Ave. from Forty-Fifth to Fifty-Fifth Sts. with bagpipers, Scottish clans, music groups, Scottish terriers, and more. On Saturday night, the Caledonia Collective at Webster Hall will consist of Stanley Odd, Rachel Sermanni with Louis Abbott of Admiral Fallow, and Breabach. Stanley Odd will also share a bill with the View Saturday night at the Knitting Factory and Sunday night at Bowery Ballroom. On April 7, Alan Cumming begins a three-month Broadway run starring as the title character in the one-man National Theatre of Scotland production of Macbeth, set in a mental ward. On April 8, Scottish fashion will be on display at “From Scotland with Love: The Scottish Lion Meets the Asian Dragon,” a cocktail party and fashion show at Stage 48. On April 9, Ian Gow, curator of the National Trust for Scotland, will receive the Great Scot Award at the black-tie “Celebration of Scotland’s Treasures” dinner at the Metropolitan Club. On April 12, Ken Loach’s Cannes Jury Prize winner The Angels’ Share opens at Lincoln Plaza and the Landmark Sunshine. And on April 14, the Scottish Ensemble, a string orchestra highlighted by trumpeter Alison Balsom, will perform at Town Hall with a program that includes the U.S. premiere of James MacMillan’s “Seraph.” A h-uile la sona dhuibh ’s gun la idir dona dhuibh!

THE REVISIONIST

Second cousins Maria (Vanessa Redgrave) and David (Jesse Eisenberg) are living in cramped quarters in THE REVISIONIST (photo by Sandra Coudert)

Cherry Lane Theatre
38 Commerce St.
Extended through April 27, $85
212-989-2020
www.therevisionistplay.com
www.cherrylanetheatre.org

Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg, who has starred in such films as The Social Network, The Squid and the Whale, and Adventureland, continues his writing/acting double-play foray into off-Broadway with The Revisionist. The follow-up to his 2011 drama, Asuncion, which also was produced by Rattlesticks Playwright Theater at the Cherry Lane, The Revisionist features Eisenberg as David, a self-obsessed novelist who arrives at the claustrophobic apartment of his septuagenarian second cousin, Maria (Vanessa Redgrave), a Holocaust survivor who is so excited to see him that she has filled her cramped home with old family photographs and has plans to take him all around her Baltic port city of Szczecin. But it turns out that David has not come to Poland for a friendly visit but instead to get over a case of writer’s block and make revisions to his next novel, which is on a very tight deadline. He just wants to be left alone in the bedroom, where he can get high and type away on his laptop. He’s rude, selfish, and obnoxious, but Maria takes it all in stride, dropping in surprisingly wry and funny comments that sometimes get past David, who eventually realizes there is more to life than just him and his book. Inspired by actual events, The Revisionist, directed by Kip Fagan, is an intriguing, if not wholly successful, character study, the central story rather slight, and Eisenberg overplays — and overwrites — David’s unlikability and lack of understanding, especially in the first half of the show. Although it’s always great to see the talented Daniel Oreskes (The Twenty-Seventh Man, Russian Transport), who plays a taxi driver who regularly helps out Maria, the part is mostly unnecessary, save for one hysterical scene involving leg shaving. But Redgrave is masterful throughout as Maria, injecting just the right touch of irony and mystery to her witty dialogue, each line delivered with a charming magic. It’s an absolute thrill to see such an accomplished actress at the top of her game in such a small theater. The sold-out run has been extended through April 27, although there is a stand-by line every night; in addition, there are rumblings that the producers are investigating moving the production to Broadway in the near future.

OLD HATS

Bill Irwin, Nellie McKay, and David Shriner clown around in Signature Theatre’s OLD HATS (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Irene Diamond Stage
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through May 9, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

Full Moon clowns Bill Irwin and David Shiner are back together again, transforming the Irene Diamond Stage at the Signature Theatre into a rollicking vaudeville house in Old Hats. Irwin, who graduated from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and cut his teeth with the Pickle Family Circus, and Shiner, a Cirque du Soleil veteran, have teamed up with London-born composer, performer, activist, and satirist Nellie McKay for a wildly funny two-hour show made up of comic sketches, live music, and a little mayhem. Irwin, the 2003-04 playwright-in-residence at the Signature, and Shiner alternate solo and duo skits with new and old songs by McKay, who plays piano and ukulele leading her band, which features Alexi David on bass, Mike Dobson on percussion, Tivon Pennicott on sax and flute, and Kenneth Salters on drums. Over the course of the night, Irwin and Shiner run from a boulder chasing them down on a back screen à la Indian Jones (courtesy of projection designer Wendall K. Harrington), participate in a silly magic act and an even sillier political debate, and turn into their own funhouse mirrors while waiting for a train. In “The Businessman,” Irwin interacts with his own small image on an iPhone and iPad and much larger depiction on the back screen, wonderfully integrating modern technology into a riotous little tale that holds some delicious surprises. In “Cowboy Cinema,” the longest piece, Shiner picks out a group of people from the audience to enact an old-fashioned silent Western movie scene, with uproarious results. Meanwhile, McKay plays such tunes as “Mother of Pearl,” “Bodega,” and “Dispossessed” in between sketches, her delightfully high-pitched voice and wickedly bold sense of humor putting her on equal footing with Irwin and Shiner instead of just being a time killer during set changes and intermission. “If you would sit oh so close to me / That would be nice like it’s supposed to be / If you don’t I’ll slit your throat / So won’t you please be nice?” she sings on “Won’t U Please B Nice?” Directed by Tina Landau (Superior Donuts, A Civil War Christmas), Old Hats flows virtually seamlessly, providing lots of laughs and “Can you top this?” moments generated by a pair of very clever clowns and a sly and sassy chanteuse.