this week in theater

CHAPLIN

Rob McClure embodies the Little Tramp in new Broadway musical about Charlie Chaplin (photo by Joan Marcus)

Ethel Barrymore Theatre
243 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Through February 3, $49.50 – $135.50
www.chaplinbroadway.com

From his Dickensian upbringing to Hollywood stardom to his penchant for underage women and his long exile overseas, followed by a final redemption, Charles Spencer Chaplin lived quite a life, something book writers Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan are only partially successful in bringing to the big stage with Chaplin. The new musical, directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, glories, perhaps a bit too much, in Rob McClure’s dazzling performance as Chaplin, embodying the multitalented actor, writer, director, musician, composer, political rebel, and womanizer whose socially relevant silent comedies brightened up hard times in America during the 1920s and 1930s. The show starts in London, as young Charlie (a charming Zachary Unger) grows up in the seedy alleys and burlesque clubs with his mother, Hannah (an outstanding Christiane Noll), a bawdy performer whose husband has essentially abandoned the family. An older Charlie soon catches a break and is working for Mack Sennett (a strong Michael McCormick) in Hollywood; the scene in which Charlie is ordered to be funny and transforms into the Little Tramp is splendidly done, adding a deft touch of magic to the invention of this seminal character. Hiring his brother, Sydney (Wayne Alan Wilcox), as his business manager, Charlie finds massive success with such films as The Kid, The Gold Rush, and The Circus, but the musical oddly chooses which to focus on; while Carlyle does a good job equating The Kid with Chaplin’s real-life experiences as a child (clever casting has Unger also playing Jackie Coogan), shorter (or stranger) shrift is given to such critical works as City Lights and Modern Times, and later films such as Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight warrant nary a mention, despite their many inside references to his personal situations.

The musical does, however, devote a major sequence to The Great Dictator that reveals the development of his public political persona. But in the second act, Chaplin spends way too much time concentrating on Hedda Hopper’s (Jenn Colella) mission to destroy Chaplin by labeling him a communist in order to get even for his refusal to be interviewed by her. And the musical deals with Chaplin’s ultimately disastrous marriages to Mildred Harris (Hayley Podschun), Lita Grey, and Paulette Goddard in a baffling boxing scene that sideswipes the show, while his relationship with Oona O’Neill (Erin Mackey) swoops in from nowhere and then essentially disappears. Beowulf Boritt’s sets, Amy Clark and Martin Pakledinaz’s costumes, and Ken Billington’s lighting, along with Jon Driscoll’s inventive video projections, give Chaplin the look and feel of a black-and-white movie, but few of the songs stand out, aside from Noll’s “Look at All the People” and the ensemble piece “Just Another Day in Hollywood.” Much like Chaplin’s career, Chaplin kicks off with quite a bang but eventually dissipates into the disappointment of what could have been.

THE EXONERATED

Powerful, intense, and crucially important, THE EXONERATED is back at the Culture Project for a special tenth-anniversary engagement (photo by Carol Rosegg)

Culture Project
45 Bleecker St. between Lafayette & Bowery
Tuesday – Sunday through November 4, $30-$99
866-811-4111
www.cultureproject.org
www.theexonerated.com

Ten years ago, married couple Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s groundbreaking The Exonerated debuted at the Culture Project. The riveting, multiple-award-winning play, which follows the true, harrowing stories of five men and one woman who found themselves on death row for crimes they did not commit, is now back at 45 Bleecker St. for a special return engagement, and it’s as powerful as ever, as innocent people continue to be incarcerated and executed in this country. On a dark stage, ten people sit in front of black music stands, relating their stories as overhead lights single them out, with occasional interstitial music by David Robbins. The production, again directed by Bob Balaban, features a regular cast of six actors, along with a rotating selection of four guest stars taking on some of the major roles. The central figures are Gary Gauger (Brian Dennehy), Kerry Max Cook (Chris Sarandon), Robert Earl Hayes (JD Williams), David Keaton (Curtis McClarin), Delbert Tibbs (Delroy Lindo), and Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs (Stockard Channing), each of whom was wrongly arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death. They are joined by Jim Bracchitta and Bruce Kronenberg as various cops, prosecutors, and other public officials, April Yvette Thompson as Hayes’s wife, and Amelia Campbell as Cook’s and Gauger’s wives; Campbell, McClarin, and Kronenberg reprise their roles from the original stage production, while Dennehy and Lindo previously played their parts in the 2005 Court TV movie. Every single word of The Exonerated is taken from interviews, court transcripts, letters, and other primary sources; nothing is fictionalized, which adds to the play’s intense power. The terrifying personal journeys of the six wrongly convicted people explore such issues as racism, homophobia, and political maneuvering in which the truth seems to always take a backseat. Even though the audience knows that the six people have been freed, the play is beautifully paced, cutting from one character to another as the tension mounts and the details grow more and more amazing and hard to believe. The acting is solid throughout, but Lindo is particularly mesmerizing, speaking Tibbs’s poetic words with a masterful grace. Dennehy, Channing, and Sarandon continue through September 23 and Lindo through September 30; upcoming celebrity guests include Steve Earle, K’naan, Lyle Lovett, Brooke Shields, and the real Sunny Jacobs. Numerous shows will also be followed by panel discussions featuring such groups as the Innocence Project, Amnesty International, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Reinvestigation Project. The Exonerated not only makes for terrific theater, but its importance cannot be overstated. Don’t miss it — especially if you’re in favor of the death penalty.

COSÌ

Louis Nowra’s COSÌ examines love and madness in the theater in wacky ways (photo by Samir Abady)

Urban Stages
259 West 30th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Through September 23, $!8
212-868-4444
www.urbanstages.org
www.australianmadeentertainment.com

For its inaugural production, Australian Made Entertainment, a New York City-based organization founded by husband-and-wife performers Kathleen and Matthew Foster to promote Australian plays in the United States, has chosen both carefully and wisely: award-winning playwright Louis Nowra’s semiautobiographical 1992 work Così, a very funny examination of theater, madness, love, and the fine line between illusion and reality. Adam Zivkovic stars as Lewis, a recent theater graduate who has accepted a job directing a show in a Melbourne asylum, where it’s hoped that the patients will come out of their shells by participating. While his girlfriend, Lucy (Olivia Etzine), and best friend, Nick (Zach Bubolo), think he’s crazy for taking on such a job and instead devote their time preparing for a professional production of Brecht’s Galileo and joining the growing Australian ant-Vietnam War movement, Lewis immerses himself in the trials and tribulations of a wacky band of characters, consisting of manic-depressive wannabe opera star Roy (Matthew Foster), OCD-riddled Ruth (Laura Iris Hill), sex-obsessed Cherry (Annie Worden), pyromaniac Doug (Clint Zugel), silent lawyer Henry (Stuart Williams), medicine-dependent piano player Zac (Duke Anderson), and drug addict Julie (Kathleen Foster). Even though none of them can sing or knows Italian, Roy insists they put on Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and mad hijinks ensue as they prepare for opening night. Christopher Thompson’s dank, gray set wonderfully equates the stage with a room in a mental ward, as if the two are one and the same. Matthew Foster is loud and boisterous as Roy, celebrating the myriad possibilities that theater can offer, while the rest of the cast offers more subtle support, particularly Zugel as Doug, who threatens danger at every turn, and Worden as Cherry, who nearly steals the show with hysterical herky-jerky movements and riotous little tics. Fluidly directed by Jesse Michael Mothershed without getting heavy-handed, Così — which was also made into a 1996 film starring Toni Collette, Colin Friels, Rachel Griffiths, and Colin Hay — is a delightful beginning to the Fosters’ new company. The two-hour play, which has general admission seating, runs through September 23 at Urban Stages; be sure to stop by the concession table, where you can pick up such Australian treats as Dub Pies and salted caramel bites to further the Down Under experience.

HEARTLESS

Roscoe (Gary Cole) rages in the background as Sam Shepard’s new play about a crazy family (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Irene Diamond Stage
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through September 30, $75
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

In 1996-97, Sam Shepard was the playwright-in-residence at the Signature Theatre, presenting Curse of the Starving Class, Chicago, Tooth of Crime (Second Dance), and The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His Wife. He is now making his debut at the new Pershing Square Signature Center on West 42nd St. with the new play Heartless, which has been extended at the Irene Diamond Stage through the end of September. Developed specifically for the space, Heartless takes place in a Los Angeles house overlooking the San Fernando Valley, where the extremely cynical Sally (Julianne Nicholson), who has a frightening scar running down the length of her torso, has brought home Roscoe (Gary Cole, who is too young for the role), a professor more than twice her age who has just left his wife. Roscoe soon meets the rest of Sally’s crazy family, including sister Lucy (Jenny Bacon), a dour spinster who carries in a serving platter of meds for Sally as if it were breakfast, and mother Mable Murphy (Lois Smith), a wheelchair-bound old woman who says exactly what’s on her mind, no matter who it might hurt. Mable is cared for by nurse Elizabeth (Betty Gilpin), a beautiful young woman who rarely, if ever, speaks. From the start, it’s hard to get a footing on the story; in the first act, the unlikable nature of most of the characters rises quickly to the surface, although Lucy’s wry sense of humor and Mable’s ranting soliloquies eventually rescue the play from the confounding mix of reality and surrealism that hampers the second act. Heartless is a rare Shepard work with more female than male characters, with the sole male, Roscoe, seeming lost much of the time, merely a prop to engage the stronger, more powerful women. Much of Heartless actually lacks heart, which might relate to the plot but causes an uncomfortable distance between the audience and what’s happening onstage. The stand-out is Smith, trapped in a wheelchair but able to rage like a tornado, including one speech in which Mable mentions watching the movie East of Eden, a film that Smith actually appeared in, something that Shepard has said was just a coincidence.

THE TRAIN DRIVER

Leon Addison Brown and Ritchie Coster dig down deep in Athol Fugard’s THE TRAIN DRIVER (photo by Richard Termine)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Sunday, September 23, $25
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

Athol Fugard’s year as the inaugural Residency One playwright at the new Signature Theatre concludes in triumphant fashion with the New York premiere of the subtly powerful The Train Driver, following previous productions of Blood Knot and My Children! My Africa! On a wide, shallow stage covered in sand, dirt, rocks, and garbage, Simon Hanabe (Leon Addison Brown), an old, slow-moving black man with a shovel, approaches the audience, explaining that he has a story to share. The play then shifts to a flashback as Simon, the caretaker who buries the men, women, and children with no names in this makeshift graveyard/junkyard, is approached by Roelf Visagie (Ritchie Coster), a destitute white man desperate to find the grave of a black woman and her baby, claiming that she ruined his life. As Roelf’s harrowing tale emerges in long soliloquies (wonderfully delivered by Coster), Simon (expertly played with understated simplicity by Brown) goes about his daily business, sweeping the sand, heating canned food over a candle in his dilapidated shack, and sleeping on a ratty reclining chair. He tells Roelf that they both will be in serious danger if the local band of tsotsi, murderous thugs, catches him there, where no white man is supposed to be, but Roelf doesn’t listen as he continues his search for the dead woman and child. Fugard also directs the ninety-minute show, maintaining a mood of quiet grace as day turns to night and back to day again. The relationship between the two men never falls into cliché as they drive the story to its relentless conclusion, brought together by death and white guilt. The Train Driver runs at the Signature through September 23; on September 24, the Signature will present a screening of Gavin Hood’s Oscar-winning film, Tsotsi, which is based on Fugard’s only novel.

BEAT FESTIVAL

The crowd is part of the show in Noémie Lafrance’s CHOREOGRAPHY FOR AUDIENCES — TAKE ONE at the BEAT Festival

BROOKLYN EMERGING ARTISTS IN THEATER
Multiple venues in Brooklyn
September 12-23, $15-$35
www.beatbrooklyn.com

A celebration of community performance focusing on live music, dance, spoken word, and theater, the BEAT Festival gets under way September 12, kicking off twelve days of thirty-eight performances by thirteen acts in eight venues. Standing for Brooklyn Emerging Artists in Theater, BEAT will feature Lemon Andersen’s County of Kings, his one-man show about growing up in Brooklyn; American Opera Projects and Opera on Tap’s OPERAtion Brooklyn, featuring songs by One Ring Zero, Daniel Felsenfeld’s “A Genuine Willingness to Help (Book I),” and Sidney Marquez Boguiren and Daniel Neer’s “Stop and Frisk”; Kimberly Bartosik/daela’s You are my heart and glare, a trio of duets between dancers, designers, and vocalists; the Irondale Ensemble’s Color Between the Lines, which examines the Brooklyn abolitionist movement; Theatre Group Dzieci’s Fool’s Mass, Makbet, and Ragnarök; Noémie Lafrance’s Choreography for Audiences — Take One, in which audience members are active participants in the production; Marshall Davis Jr. & Friends, in an evening of tap; Ishmael “Ish” Islam’s BEAT Spoken Word, led by New York City’s nineteen-year-old poet laureate; a BEAT Sideshow hosted by Jessica Halem; Creative Outlet Dance Theatre’s Urban Roots and Courtney Giannone’s Protean Acts; Elevator Repair Service’s Shuffle, a mash-up of The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and The Sound and the Fury held in the stacks of the Brooklyn Public Library; and Radha Blank’s HappyFlowerNail, a one-woman show that takes place in a Bed-Stuy Korean nail salon. In addition, Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty’s video installation “Atmospheres & Accidental Ghosts” will be shown September 20-22 in the lobby of the Brooklyn Public Library, in conjunction with Shuffle. Tickets range from $15 to $35, with many of the performances taking place at multiple venues over the course of the festival, including the Irondale Center, the Flatbush Reformed Church, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and the Waterfront Museum in addition to the Coney Island Sideshow theater and MetroTech Commons, which will host two free shows. The closing party will be held September 23 at El Puente Earth Spirit Garden with BombaYo.

US: A PROGRESSIVE LOVE STORY

A couple in crisis remembers happier times in US (photo by Russ Rowland)

The Lion Theater at Theatre Row
410 West 4nd St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through September 29, $40
www.ustheplay.com

Actress and activist Michelle Clunie makes an inauspicious debut as a playwright in the political romantic comedy Us, which turns out to be a whole lot less fun than either the Republican or Democratic Convention, although it sometimes seems nearly as long. The title represents both the couple in the story and the country in the midst of the 2008 presidential campaign, with Clunie starring as an actress and activist who has just discovered that her boyfriend (Jeff LeBeau), who is about to accept his party’s nomination for senator, has been cheating on her. Right from the start, it is hard to feel any sympathy for either character, something the play never recovers from as it bounces back and forth between the present and the past, revealing how the two, who affectionately (and sickeningly) call each other Booboo, met and fell in love. Director Jennifer Gelfer (the internet series In Between Men) and Clunie, who played Melanie Marcus on Queer as Folk, make full use of the space, as Clunie’s character enters from behind the audience, walks on a platform above the rear of the stage, and threatens to leave through the main doors, but it comes off as art for art’s sake, desperate, inorganic attempts to create something, anything interesting and original. The best part of the show are the short black-and-white videos by Jendra Jarnagin that depict the couple in happier times as they explore a burgeoning love that is devoid of passion once the play returns to the characters onstage. Clunie spends too much time spouting her political views, using far-too-obvious pop music to further her points, and making too many self-referential comments about the writing of the play, resulting in a flat, uninspiring drama that offers nothing new to either the political discourse or the magic that is live theater.