Tag Archives: ars nova

KPOP

The girls of Special K struts their stuff in immersive KPOP (photo by Ben Arons)

A.R.T./New York
502 West 53rd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through October 21, $25-$75
arsnovanyc.com/KPOP

The fictional JTM Entertainment and Crossover Productions have teamed up to bring their roster of popular South Korean singing stars to Manhattan in an effort to capture the American audience, and they need your help. That is the setup for the immensely entertaining immersive show KPOP, continuing at A.R.T. through October 21. An inventive collaboration between Ars Nova (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), Woodshed Collective (Empire Travel Agency), and Ma-Yi Theater (The Romance of Magno Rubio), KPOP ostensibly invites people behind the scenes of a music factory, with the audience becoming small focus groups that are led through numerous rooms as they follow how stars are made. “This is my Korea / This is my story-ya,” JTM’s roster belts out at the beginning, setting the stage for cultural arguments about sacrificing Korean heritage in order to make it big in the States, a discussion built around Crossover head Jerry (James Seol), a master marketer who was born in America and knows little about Korea. JTM is led by the elegant and proper Jae Tak Moon (James Saito) and his wife, Ruby (Vanessa Kai), a former superstar singer who now likes to spout odd Korean sayings, such as “When you’re eating kimchi, don’t lick the sauce first.” Each focus group’s experience is slightly different, but it doesn’t matter which you are part of, as you’ll eventually meet Dr. Park (David Shih), who is ready to take his scalpel to every face to craft it into something even more beautiful; vocal coach Yazmeen (Amanda Morton); strict dance teacher Jenn (Ebony Williams), who makes sure the performers know all the right moves; girl group Special K, consisting of Sonoma (Julia Abueva), Tiny D (Katie Lee Hill), Mina (Susannah Kim), Callie (Sun Hye Park), and XO (Deborah Kim); boy band F8, featuring Timmy X (Joomin Hwang), Oracle (Jinwoo Jung), Lex (Jiho Kang), Bobo (John Yi), and Epic (Jason Tam); and label diva MwE (Marina Kondo).

Boy band F8 gives it their all in KPOP (photo by Ben Arons)

Boy band F8 gives it their all in awesomely phenomenal KPOP (photo by Ben Arons)

Unfortunately, not everything is going according to plan. Not happy with Special K’s rehearsal, Jenn shouts, “Do y’all understand why you’re here? This is where the sausage is made. When they [the audience members] leave, they should want the sausages. Right now, no one wants the sausages.” Moon adds, “I love all of you like my own children. Why do you continue to break my heart?” Meanwhile, MwE, who has a rather luxurious private chamber, is worried that Sonoma, aka Jessica, is going to supplant her as the label’s centerpiece; Epic wants to take F8 in a new direction, which angers Bobo; and there’s a mysterious building tension between Timmy X and Callie. But at the heart of it all is the concept of trying to maintain one’s cultural heritage and become international pop icons. “If you are Korean, why don’t you speak Korean?” Callie asks Jerry, who replies, “Who says I have to speak Korean to be Korean?” Callie answers, “Don’t you care where you’re from?” to which Jerry responds, “I’m from San Diego. . . . You could be a real sensation here. If you could just lose the accent.” The book by Korean-born New Yorker Jason Kim is superb, wonderfully weaving through clichés and melodrama as the individual characters burst forth and the story takes shape, while the music, lyrics, and orchestrations, by Helen Park and Max Vernon, have just the right pop flourishes, from “Wind Up Doll” and “Shopaholic” to “So in Love” and “All I Wanna Do,” from “Dizzy” and “Hahahaha” to “Phoenix” and “Amerika (Checkmate).” Music director Sujin Kim-Ramsey nails the various styles, with genre-licious choreography by Jennifer Weber, flashy costumes by Tricia Barsamian, projections by Phillip Gulley, and splashy lighting by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew. Director Teddy Bergman keeps everything flowing beautifully as the audience marches through the numerous sets, designed by Woodshed Collective cofounder Gabriel Hainer Evansohn, including a doctor’s office, a sound booth, a lounge with multiple platforms, a mirrored dance rehearsal space, and several surprises. In order to enjoy immersive theater, you have to be willing to fully immerse yourself in it, and there’s plenty to get involved in with KPOP, an awesome journey into music making, promotion, assimilation, the desire for fame, and more. Early on, Jerry explains that the mission of his agency “is to launch rockets into American markets.” With a sly sense of humor and charm to spare, KPOP accomplishes that mission, in explosive, provocative ways.

TICKET ALERT: KPOP

kpop

A.R.T./New York Theatres
502 West 53rd St.
Monday – Saturday, September 5 – October 7, general admission $45 (select dates $25-$35), premium $75
212-352-3101
arsnovanyc.com/kpop

Tickets are going extremely fast for Ars Nova’s latest production, KPOP, a collaboration with Ma-Yi Theater and Woodshed Collective running at A.R.T./New York Theatres from September 5 to October 7, with opening night set for September 22. The immersive show takes audiences behind-the-scenes at a K-pop music factory and will involve standing, walking, climbing stairs, and dancing as a cast of eighteen leads audiences throughout the space. It was conceived by Woodshed Collective (Empire Travel Agency, The Tenant) and Jason Kim; Kim wrote the book, with music and lyrics by Helen Park and Max Vernon, choreography by Bessie winner Jennifer Weber, and direction by Teddy Bergman. Ars Nova has previously presented such inventive, immersive works as Small Mouth Sounds, Eager to Lose, The Lapsburgh Layover, and a little thing called Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. So this is no time to dawdle if you want to catch what promises to be another unique, unpredictable experience.

LATTER DAYS: AN ARS NOVA FLING

A strange king (Tony Torn) rules over his underground lair and servant Dead Bill (Will Dagger) in LATTER DAYS (photo by Christopher Genovese)

Ars Nova, Theater 511
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through March 11, $21-$35
212-352-3101
dutchkillstheater.com
arsnovanyc.com

Ben Beckley’s Latter Days is a strange and awkward piece of theater, more an exercise in character study than a fully fledged work. In an abandoned underground room that is part basement, part prison cell (designed by Carolyn Mraz), a king (Tony Torn) rules his lone minion, Dead Bill (Will Dagger), as they prepare for the end of days, believing an apocalypse will leave them in charge of the world. “When I walk the streets above, I see . . . faces turned from the sun,” Dead Bill says, continuing, “eyes heavy with grief unspoken. Hearts unraveling with secret sorrow. I want so much to speak with them, to tell them what’s to come.” The king responds, “You know you must not . . . You shall not . . . We forbid it!” The servant and the king, who speaks in Shakespearean ramblings and who uses a decrepit toilet bowl as his throne, go through the same tiresome rituals every day, involving street coffee, a thermos, an interminable countdown, and the official rubbing of the royal sores, although no skin-to-skin contact between ruler and subject is permitted. Dressed in a shabby makeshift robe that appropriately includes some tin foil around his neck (courtesy of costume designer Kate Fry), the potentate moves with mannered, silly precision, casting wide-eyed looks at the audience, as if trying to bring them under his lofty wings as well. Unfortunately, Latter Days, directed by Jess Chayes (I Will Look Forward to This Later, HOME/SICK), fails to reach any kind of sainthood; Dagger (Napoleon in Exile, The Convent of Pleasure) does an admirable job as the disciple, but Torn (Ubu Sings Ubu, The Oberon), the son of actors Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, is overly cartoony as the king. A presentation of the Dutch Kills Theater Company, the hour-long Latter Days is running in repertory with Jean Ann Douglass’s seventy-five-minute The Providence of Neighboring Bodies; the plays can be seen back-to-back for $30 with the code DKDUOBOTH. Just don’t tell them we sent you.

THE WILDNESS

Lauren Worsham is the pregnant ringleader of Sky-Pony’s delightful indie-rock fairy tale, THE WILDNESS (photo by Ben Arons)

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Monday – Saturday through March 26, $36
212-352-3101
arsnovanyc.com
www.sky-pony.com

Brooklyn-based eight-piece collective Sky-Pony presents a captivating treat for adventurous theatergoers with the DIY indie-rock opera The Wildness, which has been extended at Ars Nova through March 26. A collaboration with the Play Company, The Wildness is a multimedia fairy tale that filters such popular musicals as Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell through a Narnia-like aesthetic and video-game narrative that fantasy fans will go ga-ga over. The premise is that a group of “agnostic, generally apathetic millennials” is putting on its fifth annual ritual, known as the Wildness, in order to “purge out doubts and fears.” But their leader and founder, Michael, is missing, so they forge ahead without him. Everyone plays two characters, one a member of Sky-Pony, the other in the fable. Tony winner Lauren Worsham (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) serves as the host and plays Zira, a villager who accompanies Ada, the messianic princess (Lilli Cooper), on her dangerous travels through the Wildness, where they discover a mysterious cabin, belonging to “the builder,” filled with strange objects. We are told that the role of Ada is usually performed by Michael, but Lilli, his sister, has stepped in at the last minute, starting off by delivering the invocation: “Here’s to the artists, freaks, and wanderers too, we dedicate tonight to you.” The cast also includes Katie Lee Hill and Sharone Sayegh as handmaidens and backup singers, David Blasher as the cellist and the Powerful But Aging Ruler, and Obie winner Kyle Jarrow as the keymaster and the Voice from the Boombox, with Jamie Mohamdein on bass, Kevin Wunderlich on guitar, and Jeff Fernandes, wearing a Mr. Tumnus headpiece, on drums and playing villagers as well. Over the course of ninety minutes, the story explores faith and doubt, fear of death, sin and forgiveness, temptation and salvation, the coming rapture, wandering blind, and adherence to the old ways, haunted by a prophecy: “The spring turns foul when our faith falters / only the blessed heir can make it pure again. / On sunrise of the second day of the third week of the fourth moon, / Ada will lead us into a rapturous new era.”

Sky-Pony struts its stuff in multimedia indie-rock opera at Ars Nova (photo by Ben Arons)

Religious references abound throughout The Wildness, which is divided into twelve sections, although it is no mere tent revival. Ada is identified as “the blessed heir with the facial hair”; Ada and Zira have names that evoke the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; several characters and two audience members deliver “overshares,” public confessions with a decidedly twelve-step edge; and Ada and Zira find a book in the cabin that changes everything. The Wildness is also very much about the fear of growing up, of the millennial generation staring adulthood in the face. Tony-nominated director Sam Buntrock (Sunday in the Park with George, Turn of the Screw at BAM) lets Sky-Pony strut its stuff, keeping up a rollicking, frolicking pace. The musical numbers, some of which appear on Sky-Pony’s debut album, December 2015’s Beautiful Monsters, include “The Lost Ones,” “The Waltz of the Inevitable Triumph of Doubt,” “Dragon,” and “Everyone Will Die,” with videos appearing on the many monitors throughout the space, which has been transformed by Kris Stone; a long, narrow stage (reminiscent of a cross?) cuts the theater in two, with the audience seated on both sides, either on ottomans or comfy couches. Tilly Grimes’s costumes are steampunk hip, Chase Brock’s choreography is fun, Sara Morgan’s props are utterly charming (oh, that miniature cabin on the ceiling!), and the clever text, by husband-and-wife Jarrow and Worsham (who, in a neat twist, is pregnant), is playfully self-referential. “I’m doubting whether I can pull off these sequin panties,” Lilli opines at one point. In the fifth section, Lauren says, “Ada’s mind was filled with questions. Her father had taught her about the Wildness that trapped them in their troubled village. But no one had actually seen a dragon. Could it be they weren’t there at all?” Lilli responds, “Zira didn’t wonder this. She knew we believe in many things we don’t see.” It’s a statement that sums up what the Wildness, and life itself, is really all about.

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS

Six characters seek enlightenment at a silent retreat in SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (photo by Ben Arons)

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Monday – Saturday through April 11, $35, 7:00 or 8:00
212-352-3101
arsnovanyc.com

Silence turns out to indeed be golden in Bess Wohl’s charming, inventive Small Mouth Sounds, having its world premiere at Ars Nova. The hundred-minute play takes place at a silent meditation retreat, where six people have come seeking enlightenment, or at least a respite from the pain life has brought them. Jan (Erik Lochtefeld) is a doe-eyed middle-aged man with a soft, kind heart, carrying around with him a picture of a child. Rodney (Babak Tafti) is a yoga practitioner and meditator who knows all the right moves and poses. Alicia (Jessica Almasy) is a chaotic, emotional young woman, perpetually late and overly dramatic. Ned (Brad Heberlee) is a troubled, hapless soul who has experienced more than his fair share of suffering. And Joan (Marcia DeBonis) and Judy (Sakina Jaffrey) are a couple dealing with illness as their love is tested. The six people have come to an unnamed location — the show was inspired by a silent spiritual retreat Wohl attended at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck — for five days of vegan eating, inward searching, and no talking, led by a teacher (Jojo Gonzalez) who turns out to have some problems of his own. “Think of this retreat as a vacation from your habits. Your routines. Yourself,” the unseen teacher says in a slow, choppy disembodied voice heard through a speaker. “It is the best kind. Of vacation. Because after this. You don’t ever have to go back. To who you were.” Over the course of the five days, they all find out a little more about who they are, and they don’t always like what they see.

Silent retreaters discover new ways to look at the world in superb Ars Nova production (photo by Ben Arons)

Set designer Laura Jellinek (The Nether) has transformed Ars Nova into a long, narrow space, with two rows of seats on either side of the stage. At one end are six chairs for the characters, who sit there when listening to the teacher, whose voice comes from the opposite end, echoing through the room. The center, horizontal area serves primarily as the retreaters’ sleeping quarters, with Ned paired with Rodney, Joan with Judy, and Alicia mistakenly situated with Jan, which doesn’t make her happy, although he is serenely unperturbed by it. Director Rachel Chavkin, who delighted audiences with the smash hit Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, which played at Ars Nova in 2012, keeps things much simpler this time around, showing that action speaks louder than words, incorporating silent-movie tropes and clever, recognizable gestures to reveal the characters’ traits, from their failings to their hopes and dreams, from needing a pencil to fighting off bears and mosquitoes. Video projections of nature by Andrew Schneider surround the upper panels of the room, placing everyone in the great outdoors, enhanced by Stowe Nelson’s terrific sound design, from the pitter-patter of rain to the teacher’s not-quite-godlike voice. Lighting designer Mike Inwood rarely lets it get too dark, so the audience is well aware of themselves, almost as if they are also on the retreat and observing such rules as silence and no eating, since any whisper or unwrapping of candy would be seen and heard by everyone. There might not be a lot of dialogue — although there is some, as numerous rules are broken by the students and the teacher — but Wohl (Pretty Filthy) has plenty to say about impermanence, communication, connection, intention, and interdependence as relationships unfold at a calm, dare we say meditative, pace. The title refers to those guttural sounds — grunts, moans, sighs, chuckles — we all make when words won’t suffice, or aren’t allowed. In Small Mouth Sounds, Wohl, Chavkin, and the splendid cast prove that silence can speak volumes.

GAME PLAY

Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
January 29 – February 8, $15, 8:00
212-352-3101
www.arsnovanyc.com

Eleven of the world’s most famous board games will take center stage at Ars Nova as the Play Group turns those heated contests into short theatrical works and live music as part of its annual winter celebration of pop culture. Following in the footsteps of “The Wikipedia Plays,” “Missed Connections NYC,” “The Wii Plays,” and “The Urban Dictionary Plays,” among others, “Game Play” will run January 29 to February 8, with all tickets $15, which is cheaper than the cost of most of the actual games these days. Each night will include all eleven pieces: Sofia Alvarez’s Taboo, directed by Sash Bischoff; Max Posner’s Risk, directed by Portia Krieger; Sarah Burgess’s Snakes & Ladders, directed by Peter James Cook; Nick Gandiello’s Candy Land, directed by Sash Bischoff; Brian Otaño’s Scattergories, directed by Cook; Bess Wohl’s Pictionary, directed by Andrew Neisler; A. Zell Williams’s Guess Who? directed by Cook; Erica Saleh’s Life, directed by Bischoff; Daniel Pearle’s Mousetrap, directed by Andrew Neisler; Stephen Karam’s Sorry! also directed by Andrew Neisler; and that childhood favorite, Settlers of Catan, written by Sarah Gancher and directed by Portia Krieger. The plays will be performed by Peter Benson, Marcia DeBonis, Dashiell Eaves, Brandon Gill, Ben Graney, Susan Heyward, Jessica Love, and Carmen Zilles, with costumes by Tilly Grimes and Daniel Dabdoub, lighting by Richard Chamblin, projections by Caite Hevner Kemp, and live music by Crossfire.

EAGER TO LOSE

A Shakespearean catfight breaks out at Ars Nova in EAGER TO LOSE (photo by Marielle Solan)

EAGER TO LOSE: A FARCE IN BURLESQUE
Ars Nova
511 West 54th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through November 9, $30
212-352-3101
www.arsnovanyc.com

The fantastically inventive Ars Nova — home to 2011’s crazy The Lapsburgh Layover and 2012’s wildly successful Tolstoy adaptation Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, pulls off another amazing transformation, this time into the Tim Tam Room, a burlesque house where the utterly delightful Eager to Lose takes place. Tables and benches for patrons cluster around the Tim Tam’s glittering stage and runway, where the tall, handsome MC (John Behlmann) makes goofy jokes while introducing burlesque performers Tansy (Tansy Tan Dora), Glinda (Emily Walton), and Trixie (Stacey Yen), in addition to a guest dancer every night. But when Tansy, the star of the show and owner of the club, suddenly announces she is quitting in order to jet off on an international burlesque tour with Friends star David Schwimmer, Eager to Lose morphs into a Shakespearean farce told in ribald iambic pentameter as Trixie and Glinda fight over which one of them will take over and the MC realizes he is in love with Tansy and must profess his desire before she leaves, entrusting his oddball buddy, Peeps (Richard Saudek), to deliver a heartfelt note to her. But, of course, nothing goes quite as planned.

Richard Saudek brings down the house as the speech-impaired Peeps in EAGER TO LOSE (photo by Marielle Solan)

Richard Saudek brings down the house as the speech-challenged Peeps in EAGER TO LOSE (photo by Marielle Solan)

Written by Matthew-Lee Erlbach and directed by Wes Grantom and Portia Krieger, Eager to Lose is an immense amount of fun, mixing ample doses of sex and silly humor into its deliciously decadent tale. The plot evokes such Bard works as Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and A Comedy of Errors while incorporating classic vaudeville and silent-film bits referencing Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, and the Marx Brothers. Walton is sweetly innocent as Glinda, Behlmann (The 39 Steps) is endearingly charming as the MC, part Jim Carrey, part David Duchovny, and cocreator and choreographer Tansy, known as the Elizabeth Taylor of Burlesque, has a field day as the sexy diva in the middle of it all. Even the band — musical director Cody Owen Stine on piano, Ben Arons on drums, Chris Bastian on bass, and Danny Jonokuchi on trumpet — gets in on the action. But Saudek virtually steals the show as the mute fool Peeps, displaying impressive pantomime skills that bring down the house several times. Mark Erbaugh’s set design and Tilly Grimes’s flashy costumes add to the many pleasures, as does a bar that remains open throughout the show. Be sure to arrive early for an extra little bonus.