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![Joe Morton](images/Theatre/the_115-01.jpg)
Joe Morton |
A Sparkling Performance
OE MORTON is a
remarkable performer. In Turn Me Loose, by
Gretchen Law, directed by John Gould Rubin,
at the Westside Theatre, he plays Dick Gregory,
beginning with his performance as a standup comedian in
1963. We watch him grow up and deliver his comments on
racial bigotry throughout his career. He is now 83. With the
assistance of another actor (John Carlin),
who plays small multiple roles, Morton dominates the stage,
and reminds us, in spite of all the gains in racial
equality, that over the decades, 2016 still, in many ways,
looks like 1963. He gives a powerful, exciting performance.
Dick Gregory, who attended the Off-Broadway show on opening
night, can be very proud.
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Strictly For Pie
Lovers
ARA BAREILLES is a
popular singer/songwriter, nominated for five Grammy Awards.
She has now written the music and lyrics for her first
Broadway show, Waitress, book by Jessie
Nelson, based on a film by Adrienne Shelly
with the same title, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. The
music is pleasant, not memorable, and the lyrics are banal.
It is story about an unhappy, pregnant
waitress (Jessie Mueller), with a talent
for baking pies, working in a diner in a small town.
Keala Settle and Kimiko Glenn work
with her, and the three sing well. Her husband (Nick
Cordero) is fired from his job and verbally abuses
her. He also smashes her guitar.
However, the story turns sick when she
begins having sex with her doctor in his office. The
excellent Christopher Fitzgerald steals the
show as the lover of one of the other waitresses. The rest
of the cast are dull and boring, and for a musical, it has
minimal choreography. Diane Paulus directed
the show.
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A Must See
HE revival of The Color Purple,
book by Marsha Norman, music and lyrics by
Brenda Russell, Allee Willis,
and Stephen Bray, based on the novel by
Alice Walker, at the Bernard B. Jacobs
Theatre, is a revised version of the original production. A
minimal set design, with only chairs as furniture, makes you
focus on the actors, and splendid actors they are.
The tale takes place over decades in
Georgia, from 1909 to 1940. Cynthia Erivo (Celie)
is a 14-year-old who has just given birth to her second
child. Both are taken away from her by her brutal father,
for whom she is a virtual slave. She is given away as a wife
to another brute, who carries a whip. Her life is miserable.
Heather Headley replaced
Jennifer Hudson, and was superb as a sexy
lady, as is Joaquina Kalukango as Celie’s
sister and Danielle Brooks as the wife of
the only kind male onstage, under the expert direction of
John Doyle. Erivo is the leading lady, and has already won
the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and
the Tony Award.
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A Thanksgiving Play
REVIEWED
The Humans, by Stephen Karam, Off-Broadway.
Seeing it again at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, I was
delighted to find that the excellent six-member cast,
directed by Joe Mantello, is performing at
the same high level.
At this family Thanksgiving dinner all kinds
of financial and health (both mental and physical) problems
are discussed by each individual, except the grandmother,
who is suffering from dementia and babbles incoherently.
She, plus the mother (Jayne Houdyshell),
the father (Reed Birney), and an older
sister (Cassie Beck), have arrived from
Pennsylvania to dine with the younger sister (Sarah
Steele) and her boyfriend (Arian Moayed).
There is a constant pounding from the apartment above the
young couple, who have just moved into their two-level
dilapidated apartment in Chinatown. In spite of the gloomy
set design, there is much humor in the play.
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Not To My Taste
IRECTOR Ivo
Van Hove,
has a reputation for re-imaging classics by Eugene
O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and many others
Off-Broadway, and now Arthur Miller's The Crucible,
at the Walter Kerr Theatre. I have seen everything he has
done in New York. He obviously is an acquired taste, which I
have not been able to acquire. What he has done to Miller's
monumental work is bizarre, to say the least.
The play is about the Salem witch trials in
the 1690s, in which the lives of falsely accused men and
women were ruined. Miller used this to compare with the
Senator Joseph McCarthy witch hunt in
congress in the early 1950s. This version takes place in a
gloomy modern day schoolroom.
The costume design by Wojciech Dziedzic is
the dreariest ever seen on a Broadway stage. No actor looks
good. Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okenedo
and Saoirse Ronan are not given a chance to
shine in these conditions. Also Luchta, a
Tamaskan, is a rare breed of dog that appears in its
Broadway debut as a wolf. For me, it was the highlight of
the almost three-hour production, which can be summed up in
one word: excruciating.
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All About Gloria
Estefan
N YOUR FEET!
is the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan and
the Miami Sound Machine, book by Alexander
Dinelaris, at the Marquis Theatre. Fans of their music
will have a great time listening to their hit songs. The
largely Latino cast, directed by Jerry Mitchell and
choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, bring their story
to life with their energetic acting, singing and dancing.
Ana Villafane is terrific,
with a wonderful voice as the superstar Gloria Estefan, and
Andrea Burns is superb as her mother.
Jose Segarra is equally good as Emilio
Estefan. An adorable young little actor Eduardo
Hernandez plays three roles, and steals each scene
with his marvelous dancing.
The production is fast moving, and the
audience loved it. They even got to join the cast in the
aisles as they performed a conga to close the first act.
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For Lovers of Rock
'n' Roll
LEX
BRIGHTMAN
as dewey gives an amazing performance as a frustrated Rock
'n' Roll musician, who fraudulently becomes a substitute
teacher in a private high school, in School of Rock,
book by Julian Fellows, lyrics by Glen Slater,
and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, at the Winter
Garden Theatre.
Sierra Boggess
is the uptight principal with a magnificent voice,
especially when she sings an aria by Mozart with dazzling
high notes. Thirteen talented children play the students.
They are, without doubt, the finest young actors on the
Broadway stage this season.
The cast is
expertly directed by
Laurence Conner,
and choreographed by JoAnn
M. Hunter.
The dialogue is funny, the music melodious, and the entire
show is a pure delight. The set design by
Anna Louizos
is a joy to behold, and moves rapidly from scene to scene.
You leave the theater smiling and happy.
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Leaves You Happy
REVIVAL
of She Loves Me, book by
Joe Masteroff,
music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by
Sheldon Harnick,
at Studio 54, is a modest musical, about two employees (Laura
Benanti and Zackery Levi) in
a perfume shop, who write letters to each other, unknown to
each other, in a lonely hearts club, while at work they do
not get along. The entire cast is perfect, skillfully
directed by Scott Ellis. The music is pleasant, the
lyrics are intelligent, and the choreography by Warren
Carlyle is fine. It is a warm hearted, theatrical
experience. The entire cast is first rate.
The audience leaves the theater with a happy heart. The set
design by David Rockwell is lovely, and won a Tony
Award.
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Disappointment At
Season’s End
HE final show
of the Broadway season is Shuffle Along or the Making of
the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed,
music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake,
original book by F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles,
book by George C. Wolfe, at the Music Box Theatre.
It features five
of the brightest stars on Broadway: Audra McDonald,
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon and Joshua
Henry.
Unfortunately, it
is a disappointing musical. Directed by a pedantic
pedagogue George C. Wolfe, it proceeds to give the audience
a lecture on the history of black musicals on Broadway. The
highlight is the closing number, I'm Just Wild About
Harry, choreographed by Savion Glover,
which closes the first act. At almost three hours, the show
needs judicious editing.
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