this week in theater

THE PIANO LESSON

August Wilson’s THE PIANO LESSON is back in a sparkling revival at the Signature Theatre (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Irene Diamond Stage
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through January 13, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

Inspired by a 1983 painting by Romare Bearden, August Wilson brought the canvas to life in his masterful 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, The Piano Lesson, currently in the midst of a sparkling revival at the Signature Theatre through December 23. After three years away, Boy Willie (Brandon J. Dirden) returns to the home of his uncle, Doaker Charles (James A. Williams), and sister, Berniece (Roslyn Ruff), in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1936, bringing with him his best friend and cohort, Lymon (Jason Dirden), a flatbed loaded with watermelons, and a plan to buy back ancestral land by selling a treasured family piano. But the piano is more than just a valuable musical instrument; it represents the history of the Charles clan, in both how it came to be in their possession and the intricate carvings of their forebears that line the front and side. The already taut drama then kicks into high gear as generations and siblings clash, a ghost does or does not appear, and brash, fast-talking Boy Willie faces down hard-won traditions.

Brandon J. Dirden comes on like a speeding train in brilliant revival (photo by Joan Marcus)

The fourth play in Wilson’s ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle that features one work set in each decade of the twentieth century (and also includes Fences, Two Trains Running, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Seven Guitars), The Piano Lesson is stunning in its language, every line like an expertly crafted piece of music, the tempo rising and falling and rising again, a talking blues that examines the black experience in America in captivating ways. Brandon J. Dirden, taking on the iconic role previously performed by Samuel L. Jackson and, most famously, by a Tony-nominated Charles S. Dutton, is a whirlwind as Boy Willie, an explosive character unable to say or do anything in a small way, charging across the stage like a train speeding through a station, on an unstoppable path to somewhere better. His brother Jason is endearing as the much simpler Lymon, who seems happy enough with a cheap suit and night on the town. Williams, who earlier this year played Mr. M in the Signature revival of Athol Fugard’s My Children! My Africa!, provides the voice of reason as Doaker, along with Eric Lenox Abrams as Avery, a minister who would like to settle down with Berniece. Chuck Cooper adds plenty of humor as the big and blustery Wining Boy, an engaging gambler and bluesman who shows just what the piano can do. The story takes place in set designer Michael Carnahan’s tear-away house, which looks like a tornado tore through it, ripping it in half, like the lives of the characters, each of whom is searching for their own personal completeness. Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who has both acted in and directed other works by Wilson, winning a Tony in 1996 as Canewell in Seven Guitars, clearly understands the playwright’s brilliant skill, balancing the action and words with a steady hand. One of the best production of the year on or off Broadway, The Piano Lesson is a magical night of unforgettable theater by one of America’s true masters.

VOLPONE

Stephen Spinella has a blast as the title character in streamlined revival of Ben Jonson’s VOLPONE (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Red Bull Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theater
121 Christopher St. between Bleecker & Hudson Sts.
Tuesday – Sunday through December 23, $20-$75
212-352-3101
www.redbulltheater.com

Ben Jonson’s classic 1606 English Renaissance satire, Volpone, is currently enjoying its first major New York City revival in half a century, in a deliriously entertaining streamlined version at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The Red Bull Theater production, directed with a playful hand by Jesse Berger, stars two-time Tony winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America) as Volpone, a Venice magnifico who takes great delight in duping various local patrons out of their extensive wealth. “Open the shrine, that I may see my saint. . . . Hail the world’s soul, and mine,” he declares upon waking, referring to his treasure chests of gold. He requests a serenade by his trio of oddball servants, eunuch Castrone (Sean Patrick Doyle), fool Androgyno (Alexander Sovronsky), and dwarf Nano (Teale Sperling), who put on a fabulous little performance for their master, with the help of offstage musicians and ensemble members Jen Eden and Pearl Rhein. Pretending to be dying of a variety of awful illnesses, Volpone is visited by a series of greedy elitists who bring him expensive gifts in the hopes of becoming his sole heir and inheriting his vast riches. The parade of men and women who feign caring about him while actually praying for his impending death include Corbaccio (Alvin Epstein), a nearly deaf old man willing to cut his son, Bonario (Gregory Wooddell), out of his will in favor of Volpone; Corvino (Michael Mastro), a wealthy merchant contemplating pimping out his virtuous wife, Celia (Christina Pumariega), in order to be named as Volpone’s heir; Voltore (Rocco Sisto), a buffoonish lawyer who can’t wait for Volpone to kick the bucket; and the elegant Lady Would-Be (four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh), who uses her feminine wiles to go after the prize. Orchestrating the mad goings-on is Volpone’s right-hand parasite, Mosca (Cameron Folmar), who relishes his role as the one who casts out the bait and reels in the catch. But when Volpone goes too far, he and Mosca have to come up with a new plan or face potential ruination.

The supposedly impending death of a wealthy Venetian sets many wheels in motion in classic English comedy (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Considered one of the greatest non-Shakespearean Jacobean comedies, Volpone is a frenetic farce fraught with fanciful flourishes. Jonson has fun with the details, beginning with the characters’ names, which reveal their inner nature; Volpone means fox, Corbaccio raven, Corvino crow, Voltore vulture, and Mosca fly. He skewers English society, leaving no one unscathed, including Volpone and Mosca and the courts. Spinella has a ball playing the sly fox, addressing the audience directly as he dupes his callers with relish, but Folmar nearly steals the show as his oft-improvising servant. Trimmed down to a lean two hours from its original four, Volpone also features several raunchy musical numbers by Scott Killian and wonderful costumes by Clint Ramos that further reflect the characters’ true selves. Things threaten to get a little too crazy in the second act, but Berger steadies the ship for a grand finale. Jonson works all seven deadly sins into his tale, which still feels relevant in today’s money-hungry world, where so many are willing to do whatever it takes for wealth and power.

DEAD ACCOUNTS

Playwright Theresa Rebeck ultimately bites off more than she can chew in DEAD ACCOUNTS (photo by Joan Marcus)

DEAD ACCOUNTS
Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Through September 2, $67 – $147
www.deadaccountsonbroadway.com

Ohio-born playwright Theresa Rebeck follows up her Broadway comedy Seminar and television series Smash with the slight, sitcomy Dead Accounts. The dysfunctional family tale is set in a kitchen in a house in Cincinnati, where prodigal son Jack (Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz) has suddenly and unexpectedly arrived from New York City, bringing with him numerous pints of Graeter’s ice cream. The charged-up Jack tells his younger sister, the cute Lorna (Katie Holmes), all about how he convinced the guy at the ice-cream shop to let him in, even though it was closed, and sell him a bunch of pints by paying him a thousand dollars. Lorna, who has sacrificed her social life in order to take care of her mother, Barbara (Jayne Houdyshell), and ailing, unseen father, is shocked by Jack’s disregard for the law (yeah, we didn’t get that one either), but she’s about to find out that Jack has done a lot worse and is on the run from both his job and his wife, Jenny (Judy Greer), whom he jokes about having killed. Meanwhile, Jack tries to reconnect to his hometown by hanging out with his childhood friend Phil (Josh Hamilton), who has had a longtime crush on Lorna, and devouring cheese Coneys. (The play features a whole lot of eating and drinking.) As various truths slowly emerge about Jack, things threaten to get even crazier in this small-town madhouse.

Butz gives a bravura performance as the manic-depressive Jack, who seems to live in a different reality from everyone else, but the play is weighed down by Rebeck’s inability to find its center; she sets the story in a kitchen, and she has essentially thrown in everything but the kitchen sink as she takes on religion, politics, Wall Street, environmentalism, love, aging, loneliness, drug addiction, and other topics in a swift two hours (with intermission). Holmes (All My Sons) is good as the shy Lorna, delivering a rousing soliloquy on the state of the nation that earns a well-deserved round of applause, and two-time Tony nominee Houdyshell (Follies, Well) is a joy to watch as always, but Greer, in her Broadway debut, speaks too softly, and Hamilton (The Coast of Utopia) isn’t given much to do with Phil, who seems to have stepped out of a middling sitcom. And continuing the play’s eating theme, the proceedings are dragged down by Rebeck repeatedly biting the hand that feeds her, tearing into big-city New York in favor of small-town Ohio in a mean-spirited way that falls outside the central story and seems to come with a gigantic chip on her shoulder. Fluidly directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O’Brien (The Coast of Utopia, Hairspray), Dead Accounts does have its share of tasty little morsels, especially in the person of Norbert Leo Butz, but it veers off in too many directions as it reaches its curious climax.

THE LAST SEDER

The Prices gather together for what could be the final time in their family home in THE LAST SEDER (photo by Richard Termine)

Theatre Three
311 West 43rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., third floor
Extended through January 13, $18-$30
212-868-4444
www.rosalindproductions.com

Jennifer Maisel’s The Last Seder mimics the experience of actually being at a Seder in more ways than one: waiting through a longish exposition until the actual dinner starts. At many American seders every year, there are often numerous participants who can’t wait for the declaration of Shulchan Orech, the start of the festive meal. What comes before — the traditional telling of the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt during the reign of Ramses II — can often go on and on, as some family members are riveted and others bored silly, desperately in need of the next ritual glass of wine. Such is the case with The Last Seder, which has just been extended at Theatre Three through January 13. The Price family is gathering for Passover at the family homestead in East Rockaway for the final time, as the house is being sold so that patriarch Marvin (Greg Mullavey, so effective earlier this year as a Holocaust survivor in The Soap Myth), suffering from Alzheimer’s, can be moved into a group residence because his wife, Lily (Kathryn Kates), can no longer take care of him by herself despite her best efforts. Their four daughters join them, each of whom brings her own baggage to the table: the oldest, Julia (Sarah Winkler), is a pregnant therapist having a baby with her girlfriend, Jane (Mélisa Breiner-Sanders); Claire (Abigail Rose Solomon), the second oldest, has been with tech geek Jon (Eric T. Miller) for many years but can’t commit to marriage; Michelle (Gaby Hoffmann), the third oldest, is still trying to find herself and invites a stranger she meets in Penn Station, Kent (Ryan Barry), to come to the Seder with her and pretend to be her boyfriend so she doesn’t have to answer questions about being alone; and Angel (Natalie Kuhn), the wild, adventurous youngest daughter, is still obsessed with her neighbor boyfriend, the black Luke (Andy Lucien), so she is unable to go on with her life. In addition, family friend Harold (John Michalski) is hanging around, perhaps a little too closely, with Lily.

The Price family remembers how it used to be in THE LAST SEDER (photo by Richard Termine)

The first half of The Last Seder is filled with little squabbles, bigger fights, a night of romance (in which all of the couples come together in one way or another at the same time), and myriad ideas and subplots thrown around all at once as Maisel attempts to tackle too many issues; focusing on fewer would have made for a tighter structure. Director Jessica Bauman uses the unique conceit of showing characters in bed or asleep as standing figures clutching sheets at their necks, which sometimes can confuse the audience about what exactly is going on. Gabriel Evansohn’s set, a tilted roof sticking out of the floor, also causes confusion, sometimes serving as an actual roof, and other times, well, it’s not quite clear what it is. But all those problems are washed away once the family sits down for the Seder, which turns into a spectacularly beautiful and moving event that will have you weeping with both sadness and joy. Sharply written without being overly sentimental, the Seder captures each character’s situation with intelligence and grace, tenderly displaying their humanity and showing just what it means to be a family. Regardless of religious belief, each person takes part in the proceedings, leading to a heartbreaking finale that you will never forget. It will stay with you at Seders to come — and make you want to attend a Seder if you never have before.

THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD

The audience gets to choose the ending and more in Roundabout revival of THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (photo by Joan Marcus)

Studio 54
254 West 54th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through March 10, $42-$147
212-719-1300
www.roundabouttheatre.org

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is back on Broadway for the first time since the original production won five Tonys and nine Drama Desk Awards, and it’s as bawdylicious as ever. Featuring book, music, and lyrics by Rupert Holmes — yes, the man behind “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” — Drood is a brilliantly imagined take on Charles Dickens’s final novel, half of which was serialized in 1870 before the British writer died at the age of fifty-eight. Dickens’s Victorian tale is set in a frame story, told as if it were being performed by a troupe in London’s Music Hall Royale in 1895. The Drood story itself is regularly interrupted by the master of ceremonies, Mr. William Cartwright (a wonderful Jim Norton), who tries to keep order while directing the wild shenanigans, introducing the characters and their actors and speaking directly to the audience. (Almost everyone interacts with the crowd; be sure to arrive before curtain time, as the actors walk around the theater in character and chat with theatergoers.) Will Chase (Smash) stars as music hall actor Mr. Clive Paget, who plays John Jasper, the mustachioed villain of the show-within-a-show. Church choirmaster Jasper is in love with his student, young buxom blonde Rosa Bud (Betsy Wolfe as Miss Deirdre Peregrine), who is engaged to marry Edwin Drood (Stephanie J. Block as “famous male impersonator” Miss Alice Nutting; Drood is always played by a woman, including, in the past, Betty Buckley and Donna Murphy). Intrigue abounds when a pair of adult orphan siblings from Ceylon, Neville and Helena Landless (Andy Karl and Jessie Mueller as Mr. Victor Grinstead and Miss Janet Conover), are brought to the town by the Reverend Mr. Crisparkle (Gregg Edelman as Mr. Cedric Moncrieffe); the local drunk, Durdles (Robert Creighton as Mr. Nick Cricker), finishes a tomb for the mayor’s dead wife; and Jasper spends the night in an opium den run by the haughty Princess Puffer (Chita Rivera as Miss Angela Prysock, the role originated by Cleo Laine).

Chita Rivera, Stephanie J. Block, and Will Chase star in DROOD revival at Studio 54 (photo by Joan Marcus)

The story unfolds through such terrific production numbers as “There You Are,” “A Man Could Go Quite Mad,” “No Good Can Come from Bad,” and the music-hall troupe’s classic, non-Drood song, “Off to the Races,” but the Drood plot comes to a screeching halt when they reach the part where Dickens died. At that point, it all becomes even more fun as the audience votes on various aspects of the tale, including the identity of the strange detective who has been seen around town and, even more important, the murderer of Edwin Drood, who has disappeared. The plot proceeds from there, potentially different every night. (Try to show some compassion for poor Phillip Bax, amiably played by Peter Benson, who has little to do as Bazzard in the Drood retelling.) Director Scott Ellis (Harvey) and choreographer Warren Carlyle (Chaplin) keep things appropriately light and frothy, filled with playful humor and plenty of double entendres, making for an extraordinarily delightful night of theater.

GOLDEN CHILD

David Henry Hwang’s GOLDEN CHILD is in need of revival at the Signature Theatre (photo by Richard Termine)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through December 16, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

Last year, Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) teamed up with Obie-winning director Leigh Silverman (In the Wake, Go Back to Where You Are) and actress Jennifer Lim on the Broadway hit Chinglish, a charming comedy about an American businessman who arrives in a small town in China ready to make a deal but is beset by communication and language issues. The three are together again for the Signature Theatre’s revival of Hwang’s Obie-winning, Tony-nominated Golden Child, but the results this time are far less successful. Based on his own family history and a visit he made to his maternal grandmother when he was ten, Golden Child begins in 1968 Manila, as an American-born Chinese teenager (Greg Watanabe) gets ready to interview his grandmother, Eng Ahn (Annie Q), on a tape recorder. While he wants to talk about the history of the family, she wants to focus on Jesus and Christianity. The play then flashes back to Fujian, China, in 1918, as Eng Tieng Bin (Watanabe) is returning from three years working abroad. Waiting for him are his three wives: first wife Eng Siu-Yong (Julyana Soelistyo, who originated the title role in the 1998 Broadway production), a traditionalist who follows the rules of decorum; second wife Eng Luan (Lim), a manipulative woman with a master plan; and third wife Eng Eling (Lesley Hu), who is not as familiar with accepted protocol but is the most passionate of the trio. The three women, as well as Eng’s only daughter, Ahn (Annie Q), quickly learn about his travels, including his newfound interest in Christianity, made more apparent when a marble-mouthed British missionary, Reverend Baines (Matthew Maher), stops by for a visit. Golden Child examines such themes as ancestral worship, foot binding, Confucianism, Jesus, and bragging about one’s accomplishments, but Silverman’s stolid direction, the rather lackadaisical acting, and the tepid and didactic dialogue turn the play into a history lesson that sacrifices dramatic conflict and nuance in favor of educating the audience about the Westernization of modern China and the Asian-American experience in the new world. Class is in session, but not even a very interesting one at that. Perhaps the Signature will have better luck in February when Hwang, its new Residency One Playwright, returns with a revival of his 1981 show, The Dance and the Railroad.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE MUSICAL

The Old Man (John Bolton) wins a major award in delightful Christmas musical (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
205 West 46th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Through December 30, $49-$159
www.achristmasstorythemusical.com

Bob Clark’s beloved holiday film, the 1983 family classic A Christmas Story, may now become a beloved classic Broadway musical as well with this sparkling Broadway adaptation. Joseph Robinette’s book and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s music and lyrics show deep respect for what makes Jean Shepherd’s tale about a young boy’s quest to find a highly coveted BB gun under the tree on December 25 so appealing. Under John Rando’s playful direction, the adult Shepherd (Dan Lauria) wanders the stage narrating his memories as nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Johnny Rabe or Joe West), a generally good but occasional trouble-prone kid, dreams of receiving the best Christmas present ever. Meanwhile, his little brother, Randy (Zac Ballard), can’t move his arms in his winter coat; their mother (Erin Dilly) sweetly cares for Ralphie when she’s not washing his mouth out with soap for unleashing a dirty word; and their father (John Bolton, whose loose-limbed movement channels Dick Van Dyke), known as the Old Man, gripes and grumbles as he battles the neighbor’s dogs (played by real hounds), manhandles the furnace, and prepares to devour the Christmas turkey. As in Monty Python’s Spamalot, the vignettes in A Christmas Story: The Musical have become familiar favorites, and audiences will start smiling and laughing as many scenes open. The song titles alone let you know what you’re in for: “A Major Award,” “Sticky Situation,” “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out,” and “Up on Santa’s Lap,” fancifully re-created by choreographer Warren Carlyle and set designer Walt Spangler.

Santa (Eddie Korbich) and his elves frighten young Ralphie (Johnny Rabe) in A CHRISTMAS STORY (photo by Carol Rosegg)

There are several bumps along the way — a few of the production numbers, including “Ralphie to the Rescue!,” are choppy and feel unfinished — but those minor quibbles can be forgiven, overshadowed by the sheer delight of “A Major Award,” in which the Old Man celebrates winning a lurid leg lamp in a crossword puzzle competition; the marvelous flat tire scene; and the splendid depiction of the fantasy/nightmare kids experience when visiting the local department-store Santa (Eddie Korbich). Lauria, who recently starred as legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi on Broadway and is most well known as the father in The Wonder Years — a character who shares much in common with the Old Man — is wonderful as Shepherd, reliving some of his seminal childhood remembrances in 1930s Indiana in a way that resonates with everyone. A Christmas Story: The Musical works because at its core, it’s a universal tale of growing up, of family, of being allowed to make mistakes while learning about the world around you, understanding that life is not as fra-gee-lay as so many other holiday books and movies would lead you to believe. Here’s hoping it shows up under the big Broadway Christmas tree for many a season to come.