Thursday, September 26, 2024



 Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song

By Joseph Cervelli

Creator, writer and director Gerard Alessandrini rightly received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Drama League for keeping his "Forbidden Broadway" series going for four decades. His creativity in lampooning so many shows over the years is quite astounding. Yes, some of his shows are better than others and while all cannot be a laugh riot from beginning to end there are more moments of hilarity than misses. 

His current one "Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song" playing at Theater 555 has a few more misses than I would have thought but that does not mean you should not make a visit to see this mostly joyous romp.

The opening although you are not quite sure if it is or not because the house lights are on and a very rigid "usher' played by an intimidating Jenny Lee Stern warns the audience to sit in their seats and stop blocking the aisles. All sung to "Sit Down Your Blocking the Aisles" a take off of the song from "Guys and Dolls." While she is doing this cast member Chris Collins-Pisano portraying an audience member is not quite listening trying to get more Playbills. At first, you are not quite sure if this is part of the act but when you realize she is turning into Patti LuPone with her admonishment of audience members who do not turn off their phones you know the show has begun. 



As for the best numbers the top of the list is Danny Hayward's superb take on the three actors who played the unforgettable role of the Emcee in "Cabaret." There is a quieter but slightly menacing Joel Grey who originated the role. Then he becomes the sleazy but brilliant Alan Cumming. Lastly, the disastrous turn currently played by Eddie Redmayne. He accurately depicts him as an almost laughable Emcee dressed  like a clown and captures Redmayne's ineffectual performance. A shame because Redmayne is an excellent actor. 

Stern again scores with a Betty Boop portrayal of Bernadette Peters. A little worn but it works. 

Nicole Vanessa Ortiz is superb portraying Audra McDonald in the upcoming "Gypsy." 

Chris Collins-Pisano almost steals the show in his portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln dressed in the same gown as Cole Escola from the screamingly funny "Oh, Mary." 



There is a great scene in which cast spoofs Ariana DeBose who starred as Anita in the recent film version "West Side Story" by singing "A Girl Like That Who Ruined the Tonys." This, of course, refers to her disastrous turn as host this past year. Unfortunate, because DeBose was a highlight the previous times she hosted. 

Collins-Pisano impersonating Ben Platt at the Palace by wearing the robe the singer did at his concert at the Palace was hilarious. 

There were a number of let downs. As good as Stern is do we really need another "Ladies Who Lunch" doing a superior but dated take off of LuPone. And her Hillary Clinton (one of the producers of "Suffs") goes nowhere.

Hayward and Collins-Pisano are funny in an unfunny skit "Back to Back to the Future" in which they visit Oscar Hammerstein's home and see Sondheim (Stern) as a youngster who is more interested in the DeLorean rather than writing music.



Ortiz is delightful in her impersonation of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba from the upcoming film "Wicked" though the sketch is not as funny. 

A big plus having this play Theater 555 is that it is a larger stage which works much better than other venues the show has played in the past. Dustin Cross's costume design and Glenn Bassett's set design are all spot on.

Even a less than stellar "Forbidden Broadway" is better than none and there is enough here to please everyone. 

Tickets are available at Theater 555 555 West 42nd Street. 

PHOTOS: CAROL ROSEGG


Sunday, September 22, 2024

 


The Beacon

By Joseph Cervelli

The opening scene in Nancy Harris's North American premiere of her intriguing yet overwrought new play "The Beacon" at the Irish Rep is amusing. Taking place in a cottage on an island off the coast of West Cork, considered by many Ireland's feminist painter Beiv (Kate Mulgrew) is visited by her son Colm (Zach Appelman) and wife Bonnie (Ayana Workman). Colm decides to surprise his mother announcing that he and Bonnie are on their honeymoon. Bonnie was an art history major and tries to impress Beiv by analyzing the abstract painting that Beiv has just about completed. She speaks about the painting representing feminism, rape, female anatomy, etc. Beiv in a dry and far from humorous voice announces it is a blood orange. 

There is no doubt that Beiv is less than thrilled to have both of them there despite the fact she has not seen her son in over 10 years. While not actually estranged they are close to that. He is a successful software engineer in San Francisco and there has never been a warm relationship between them. And it does not help that he has never informed his mother of his recent marriage. I imagine it is hard for Beiv to be maternal when she calls herself "ferociously selfish." There are a number of secrets or mysteries going on. The main one is that Colm's dad mysteriously disappeared years ago while sailing one evening. There have been rumors though never proven that Beiv was responsible for his death, since the husband was an experienced sailor. While she and her husband were divorced he left her this cottage and left the money from their home in Dublin to her not apparently any to his son. Some neighbors seem to be on her side while one still calls her a murderer though no proof of this. To make matters worse a podcast will soon be debuting about the circumstances around her husband's death.  What really happened is explained at the end though even then you are not quite sure if completely true.  There is a forced feeling to a story Beiv tells about her husband's childhood at the conclusion of the play. 





Beiv cares nothing what people think and is in the process of remodeling the house knocking out walls and putting in glass ones. Colm is taken aback that she is leaving herself so exposed to neighbors, but it is as if she is badgering them. Her attitude towards her son and daughter-in-law is almost antagonistic. The title of the play is a metaphor for the way Beiv feels about the marriage. For her, the fact that Bonnie is a few years younger and with Colm so successful is a warning signal for him the marriage is not going work. Not quite sure about that airy logic.

Donal  (Sean Bell) is Colm's gay childhood friend who is taking part in the remodeling. The way they both look at each other after so many years is more than evident that something did happen when they were much younger. 



Beiv uncharacterically decides to have a dinner party with her Colm, Bonnie and Donal. Not sure why Harris or director Marc Atkinson Borrull needed to show Beiv setting the table which goes on for a longer period than necessary.  Perhaps, to present herself in a more favorable light but becomes tedious. And while doing this she hears some muffled sounds from what appears to be a television from a second floor of the cottage. But there is no second floor that I can recall. Not sure what that was all about. 

As you can expect the dinner party is a totally calamity. Colm becomes ruthlessly vile to his wife and when he physically grabs her arm she runs out. There is no doubt he has a drinking problem but something else you later find out went on that is briefly mentioned. Actually, that particular scene should have been shown to help explain further what accounted for Bonnie's anger. 

Something occurs just at the end of the first act which you would think play a part in the show but it really does not.


The second act is more of a let down even though one of the characters disappears. There is a languid discussion between two of the characters (won't mention which ones for spoiler reasons) and a new character (David Mattar Merten)  appears which adds no light on the proceedings. And to make matters worse what occurs between this new person and one of the other characters is far from believable. 

While the acting especially a strikingly superb one by Kate Mulgrew is quite good,  Borrull  needs to tone down the yelling a notch. Also, while some of the action moves steadily and engrossingly there are scenes that are just too long. The play runs an unnecessary two and a half hours.

Colm McNally's set and projection design is first rate as is the sounds of the ocean by sound designer Liam Bellman-Sharpe.

By no means is this an unsatisfactory play, it just could be condensed and some of the storyline much more tightly constructed. 

PHOTOS: Carol Rosegg

Tickets are available at the Irish Repertory Theatre 132 West 22nd Street.