Tag Archives: Manhattan Theatre Club

THE COMMONS OF PENSACOLA

A family faces some hard, cold truths in THE COMMONS OF PENSACOLA (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club
New York City Center Stage 1
Extended through February 9, $105
212-581-1212
www.thecommonsofpensacola.com
www.nycitycenter.org

Earlier this year, Steven Levenson’s The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin at the Roundabout examined the Bernie Madoff scandal through the eyes of a man returning from prison. Now Manhattan Theatre Club looks at the crisis from a very different point of view in Amanda Peet’s engaging and involving The Commons of Pensacola. Blythe Danner stars as Judith, a grandmother banished to live in shame in a low-rent Florida retirement community after her husband gets nailed by the Feds. With Thanksgiving approaching, Judith is visited by her forty-three-year-old daughter, Becca (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Becca’s twenty-nine-year-old boyfriend, Gabe (Michael Stahl-David). A fading actress, Becca wants to team up with Gabe, a photojournalist, to make a documentary series about Judith, focusing on her former extravagant lifestyle and what her days are like now, without any money or the luxury she grew to be so familiar and comfortable with. They are soon joined by Becca’s sixteen-year-old niece, Lizzy (Zoe Levin), who has snuck away to see her grandmother against her mother’s wishes. But soon Lizzy’s mom, Becca’s sister, Ali (Ali Marsh), who had sworn never to see their mother again, is there as well, and some damaging secrets and lies that have been bubbling just below the surface threaten to explode.

Lizzy (Zoe Levin) has a little too much in common with her aunt Becca (Sarah Jessica Parker) in Amanda Peets debut play (photo by Joan Marcus)

Lizzy (Zoe Levin) has a little too much in common with her aunt Becca (Sarah Jessica Parker) in Amanda Peet’s playwriting debut (photo by Joan Marcus)

Peet, who has appeared in such films as The Whole Nine Yards and Please Give and such television series as Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Good Wife, makes a more than admirable debut as a playwright with The Commons of Pensacola. Despite a few questionable plot twists, the dialogue is sharp and the characters wholly believable, propelled by MTC artistic director Lynne Meadow’s noninvasive direction and Santo Loquasto’s clean and tidy set, which features a glass door to the outside that is jammed shut. Danner and Parker make a natural mother and daughter team, playing off each other with a friendly ease; they previously teamed up in A. R. Gurney’s Sylvia, a 1995 MTC production in which Danner played a married woman and Parker played the stray dog her husband (Charles Kimbrough) just picked up in the park. Levin, who was in The Way, Way Back with Peet, fits right in as the niece who emulates her rather kooky aunt. Nihala Sun (No Child…) does what she can with the relatively predictable role of the black maid, Marsh is somewhat annoying as the annoying Ali, and Stahl-David (Cloverfield) is fine as Gabe, who becomes much more than just an innocent observer of this newly destitute clan. Continuing through February 9 at City Center, The Commons of Pensacola, which clocks in at a smooth, uninterrupted eighty minutes, might not be particularly deep, but it does offer a good balance of comedy and drama while depicting another side of the Madoff madness.

THE SNOW GEESE

The Gaesling clan gathers at their upstate lodge for the start of hunting season (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through December 15, $67-$120
www.manhattantheatreclub.com
www.thesnowgeesebroadway.com

Late last year, Sharr White’s gripping The Other Place, a searing look inside the mind of a marketing executive lost in her own alternate reality, opened on Broadway after a 2011 run at MCC Theatre. White’s follow-up, The Snow Geese, another coproduction of Manhattan Theatre Club and MCC at the Samuel J. Friedman, is a dreary mashup of Alan Bridges’s 1985 film The Shooting Party and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, a just-plain-dull WWI-era tale focusing on a woman having difficulty facing reality after the unexpected loss of her beloved husband. Despite the sudden death of Teddy, Elizabeth Gaesling (Mary-Louise Parker) thinks she is ready to go on with her life as the family comes together at their lodge in upstate New York for their traditional toast at the opening of snow goose season. Elizabeth is joined by her two sons: the patriotic, prodigal Duncan (Evan Jonigkeit), who goes to Princeton and has joined the war effort, and Arnold (Brian Cross), who has stayed home to take care of their mother and the family finances, which are not in very good shape.

Two sisters (Mary-Louise Parker and Victoria Clark) try to get by in Sharr White’s new Broadway play (photo by Joan Marcus)

Also with them is Elizabeth’s sister, Clarissa (Victoria Clark), a very Christian woman who thinks that Elizabeth should still be in mourning, and her husband, Max (Danny Burstein), a German-born doctor with a thick accent who can no longer practice medicine because of anti-Axis sentiment, even though he has been an American for decades. Most of the meandering story plays out on John Lee Beatty’s stodgy dining-room set, with occasional boring scenes out in bare woods where Duncan and Arnold verbally spar while not shooting at snow geese, who fly by in a metaphorical gaggle of freedom. The most interesting figure in the play is the Gaeslings’ maid, Viktorya Gryaznoy (Jessica Love), a bright young woman from a wealthy family who escaped the Ukraine and has taken a job well below her; how she is treated by the others establishes not only her character but theirs as well. Director Daniel Sullivan (Proof, Orphans) is not able to do much with the material or the mediocre performances, surprising from such a talented cast. The Snow Geese takes aim at examining the human condition in a changing America during WWI but unfortunately ends up firing mostly blanks.

ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON

Mike Daisey mixes reality and fantasy in ambitious, epic twenty-nine-night tale at Joe’s Pub (photo by Joan Marcus)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St.
Nightly through October 3, $26.50 ($20 with code DAISEY), no food or drink minimum, 7:00
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com
www.mikedaisey.blogspot.com

Monologist Mike Daisey is currently in the midst of an epic New York story at Joe’s Pub, a twenty-nine-consecutive-night “theatrical novel” that continues through October 3. Each evening, Daisey sits at a table for between sixty and seventy-five minutes, with a glass of water, a handkerchief to mop his perpetually sweaty face and brow, and a pad on which he has written an outline of what he is going to talk about. Behind him on an easel is a painting by Larissa Tokmakova (There There), who created a different canvas for each night. Daisey, whose last piece, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, stirred up quite a controversy when it was revealed that not every word in his story of Chinese workers who make Apple products at the massive Foxconn facility in Shenzhen was true, this time very deliberately mixes fact and fiction, reality and fantasy. The first part of each show generally deals with Daisey’s personal and professional life, as he discusses his childhood in Maine, self-deprecatingly talks about his girth, cynically examines life in the American theater, relates his bout with suicidal thoughts, makes fun of the price of food audience members are eating (unlike most shows at Joe’s Pub, there is no food or drink minimum), and brings up the potential of having sex in strange places with his wife, Jean-Michele Gregory, who is also the director.

Mike Daisey and painter Larissa Tokmakova in the studio, preparing for ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON (photo by Sabrina Fonseca)

Working from an outline, Daisey veers off into riotous tangents, his inflections suddenly going from soft and gentle to loud and sharp as he rants, raves, and rages about Dungeons and Dragons, Bob Dole, McDonald’s, Apple, McSweeney’s, vampires, the First Church of Christ IKEA Redeemer, Manhattan Theatre Club, and, at the center of it all, a changing New York City. But then, about halfway through, Daisey shifts gears, delving into a fantastical, surreal world where parties go on for years, Death follows him, and a mysterious character known as the Big Guy hires an even more mysterious figure named Jack to kill him (the Big Guy). At first this transition is confusing, seemingly arriving out of nowhere, but it eventually all comes together, especially if you see or listen to multiple shows. (A podcast of each performance is posted online by noon the next day.) Daisey is an engaging performer who is not afraid to take risks, a master storyteller who puts it all out there, adapting to the situation as necessary, whether sensing a lull in the proceedings or making a reference that very few people get. There’s an immediacy and intimacy about his presentation that instantly grabs the audience, which is willing to forgive Daisey his past problems and join him on this wildly ambitious ride, which features such intriguing chapter titles as “The Naked Emperor Is Still Laughing,” “Jupiter Is a King Who Never Came Back,” “Saturn Is a Father Devouring His Children,” and “The World Is More Than We Will Ever Know.” As a bonus, ticket holders receive a special tarot card for that specific show, featuring the name of the chapter and a color image of Tokmakova’s painting for that night; the tarot cards are also available to those who write legitimate reviews of individual podcasts.

THE EXPLORERS CLUB

The set is the real star of the Manhattan Theatre Club world premiere of THE EXPLORERS CLUB (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club
New York City Center Stage 1
Through July 21, $85
212-581-1212
www.theexplorersclubplay.com
www.nycitycenter.org

Evoking a number of classic Monty Python adventure skits (including the “Bruces” sketch and “The Lost World of Roiurama”), Nell Benjamin’s The Explorers Club is an immensely silly comedy set in Victorian-era England as a small gathering of explorers decide whether to accept its first female member. The wacky hijinks take place on Donyale Werle’s gorgeous set, featuring taxidermied animals hanging from the walls, a giraffe skin stretched across the floor, paintings of intrepid explorers, and a dazzling, fully stocked bar bookended by huge tusks; theatergoers are actually encouraged to snap photos of the stage and post them to social media sites before the show begins. Unfortunately, the set is the best thing about this goofy tale that regularly travels too far over the top. The Manhattan Theatre Club production stars Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) as Phyllida Spotte-Hume, an explorer who is scheduled to present to the queen her latest finding, the very blue Luigi (Carson Elrod) from the NaKong tribe of the Lost City of Pahatlabong. But after events go terribly wrong at the palace, the queen’s envoy, Sir Bernard Humphries (Max Baker), arrives, needing important information so England can go to war with the NaKong. Meanwhile, the rather proper, shy Lucius Fretway (a sweetly innocent Lorenzo Pisoni) takes a liking to Phyllida, the bombastic Harry Percy (a very funny David Furr) boasts of his discovery of the East Pole, Professor Sloane (John McMartin) quotes from the Bible and claims that the Irish are the lost Hebrews, and Professors Walling (Steven Boyer) and Cope (Brian Avers) battle over rats and snakes. The Explorers Club — not to be confused with the actual Explorers Club on the Upper East Side — becomes tiresome and repetitive very quickly, as director Marc Bruni (Old Jews Telling Jokes) and Benjamin (Legally Blonde) continually tread the same territory, whether it be jokes about snakes and charades or mentions of the club’s chief competitor, the National Geographic Society. However, one repeated joke is nearly worth the price of admission itself; posing as a bartender, Luigi mixes drinks and serves them by sliding them across and off the bar, where they’re acrobatically caught by the cast in delightful displays of dexterity. Otherwise, The Explorers Club is a disappointing journey that fails to explore any new territory.

THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES

Julie (Jessica Hecht), Jeff (Jeremy Shamos), and Faye (Judith Light) share a Christmas toast in THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 16, $67-$120
www.theassembledpartiesbroadway.com

Throughout Richard Greenberg’s splendid new play, The Assembled Parties, characters comment on how easy it is to get lost in the Bascovs’ fourteen-room Upper West Side apartment. It is also easy for the audience to get lost in Greenberg’s compelling story and well-drawn characters as the Jewish clan celebrates Christmas first in 1980, then twenty years later, with things having substantially changed. Jessica Hecht (A View from the Bridge, After the Fall) is captivating as the family matriarch, Julie, speaking in an elegant, drawn-out voice that instantly reveals her character’s unique take on the world. As the play opens, she is joined by Jeff (Jeremy Shamos), her son Scotty’s (Jake Silberman) college friend, who appears smitten with her as he helps chop vegetables in the kitchen. Soon Julie’s older sister, Faye (Judith Light), arrives, with her gruff husband, Mort (Mark Blum), and their somewhat simple daughter, Shelley (Lauren Blumenfeld). “What is all this goyisha hazarai?” Faye declares upon seeing the spread in the living room, firmly establishing her character in a mere six words. As Santo Loquasto’s superb revolving set roams from room to room (to room to room), Faye tries to set Jeff up with Shelley; Jeff throws around a basketball with Scotty while discussing Scotty’s gorgeous, unseen girlfriend; Faye demands a pill from Julie to help her get through the evening; Jeff can’t break free of the telephone-umbilical cord, obsessed with calling his mother; and Mort has quite a surprise for Julie’s husband, Ben (Jonathan Walker). “God is bogus,” Julie says over dinner, “and religion a scourge. Still, I believe in something, though I’m not sure what.”

Twenty years later, things are vastly different, the only constant being Jeff’s unending dedication to Julie. Although so much of the story is built around Julie and her Jewish family, the centerpiece of the story is really Jeff, who serves as the onstage proxy for the audience. He interacts with all the characters but often does so from an observational distance, so glad to be among such unique and intriguing people. The audience is likely to feel the same way, glad to be among such unique and intriguing characters in Greenberg’s highly entertaining and extremely clever play.

THE MADRID

Mother (Edie Falco) and daughter (Phoebe Strole) have to reevaluate their relationship in THE MADRID (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club
New York City Center Stage 1
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Extended through May 5, $95
www.themadridplay.com

It’s an intriguing proposition that many people probably consider at least once in their lives. In Liz Flahive’s The Madrid, Martha (Edie Falco) goes ahead and does it. One day, while teaching her kindergarten class, Martha simply gets up and walks out of her life, leaving her career and her family behind. Her gentle, loving husband, John (Tony nominee John Ellison Conlee), and their daughter, Sarah (Spring Awakening’s Phoebe Strole), are stunned and devastated by Martha’s disappearance, as are neighbors and best friends Becca (Heidi Schreck) and Danny (Darren Goldstein). However, Martha’s elderly mother, Rose (two-time Tony winner Frances Sternhagen), seems to take it a little more in stride. A recent college graduate who gets a job at Starbucks while contemplating her future, a confused Sarah is eventually contacted by her mother, who has moved into a ratty city apartment building called the Madrid; soon Sarah must decide whether she wants to have any kind of a relationship with her mother, who insists that Sarah tell no one, especially John, about where she is and what she is doing. Flahive and director Leigh Silverman (Chinglish, In the Wake), who previously teamed up on From Up Here, also for Manhattan Theatre Club, ask lots of questions but don’t necessarily provide the answers in the quirky, unpredictable 130-minute show that examines personal and familial identity and one’s place in the world. Martha never fully explains why she’s done what she’s done, and Falco plays her with an air of repressed mystery, like she’s not sure of the reasons either. Throughout the play, Flahive, a producer on Falco’s award-winning Showtime series Nurse Jackie, has John and Sarah prepare for a garage sale, trying to get rid of so many of the physical objects that remind them of Martha while also attempting to figure out how to deal with her desertion emotionally and psychologically. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that walking out on one’s life is not exactly a party, something Flahive handles in The Madrid with an at-times frustrating lack of clarity but also with sensitive care and humor. (Falco will be at the 92nd St. Y on April 7 for a Broadway Talks conversation and audience Q&A about the play and more with Jujamcyn Theaters president Jordan Roth.)

THE OTHER PLACE

Real-life mother and daughter Laurie Metcalf and Zoe Perry star in Sharr White’s fascinating THE OTHER PLACE (photo by Joan Marcus)

Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through March 3, $67-$120
www.theotherplacebroadway.com

Three-time Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf won both an Obie and a Lucille Lortel Award for her 2011 off-Broadway portrayal of neurologist Juliana Smithson in Sharr White’s The Other Place, and now she has a strong shot at a Tony as the play moves to Broadway in the gripping MTC production at the Samuel J. Friedman. Metcalf stars as Juliana, a pharmaceutical pitch-woman who suffers an “episode” while on the road touting a new wonder drug. Long estranged from her daughter (Zoe Perry, Metcalf’s real-life daughter, in her Broadway debut) and accusing her doctor-husband, Ian (Daniel Stern), of having an affair with her much-younger doctor (Perry again), Juliana is trying to hold herself together even as she believes she has brain cancer. But as the complex, highly cinematic play continues, it becomes evident that she is suffering from something very different, and in many ways far more frightening. White and Tony-winning director Joe Mantello (Other Desert Cities, Wicked, Love! Valour! Compassion!) tell Juliana’s harrowing story by going back and forth between the past and the present, as Justin Townsend’s lighting signals the time shifts. The action takes place within set designers Eugene Lee and Edward Pierce’s semicircular web of bleak gray frames (hiding lights and speakers) that serve as doors, windows, and mirrors while also evoking the misfiring synapses of Juliana’s brain. Metcalf (Rosanne, November) gives a dazzling performance as Juliana, an intelligent, scientific woman who doesn’t understand — and is unwilling to accept — what is happening to her. As the audience filters into the theater, she is already onstage, sitting in a chair, fiddling with her cell phone, helping the incoming crowd instantly identify with her. But soon it’s Ian, strongly portrayed by Stern, who is standing in for the audience as the truth is slowly revealed. Despite a few missteps — primarily a somewhat baffling finale that takes things much too far — The Other Place is an involving eighty minutes of fascinating theater, expertly told and brilliantly acted.