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12/12/2015Theater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales From Red Vienna | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ac5602b6-d9a3-4b97-ad2f-0d032fcd7a67&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/3Theater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales FromRed ViennaTheater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales From Red ViennaTALES FROM RED VIENNA ** out of ****MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUBWhat's the most essential skill for an actor who wants a successful and creatively satisfying career? It's nottalent. A lot of actors have talent. A lot of stars don't. But for the lucky few who actually get a shot at shapingtheir career, the most under-appreciated skill they need is picking the right roles, the right shows, the right talentto work with.Actress Nina Arianda burst onto the scene with her Tony-winning turn in Venus In Fur and has followed up withmovies like the gem Win Win and Woody Allen's Oscar-winning Midnight In Paris, not to mention her Tony-nominated Broadway debut in Born Yesterday. Tales From Red Vienna is not a similar success but playwrightDavid Grimm is a serious talent with support from The Public, Sundance, Hartford Stage and others. Perhapsthey'll click on some future project and her commitment to him will pay off. For now, we have a muddled effort ofserious intent that is likely a stumble on the way to further success or -- perhaps -- an indication of questionabletaste from her team.Seeing who can capitalize on opportunity and who cannot is one of the fascinating aspects of the arts that israrely tracked. With three movies in the bank and producers lining up to capitalize on her instant and well-deserved acclaim, Arianda will surely have plenty of chances to prove her taste is as dependable as her talent.On paper, it's certainly a plum role. Helena (Arianda) is a war widow in Vienna barely subsisting after herhusband died in the trenches of World War I. Fallen on hard times, she has turned to prostitution. Almost as if oncue, an old "friend" Mutzi (Tina Benko) flits back into Helena's life. Wealthy and indifferent to others, Mitzi hascome to pay her respects and see how Helena is doing... 18 months after Helena's husband died. In fact, shewants Helena to serve as a discrete cover so Mitzi can take her new young lover Bela (a solid Michael Esper)out on the town. To both Helena and Bela's dismay, they realize he has been a client of hers. But thisimpassioned young journalist won't leave her alone. Is he toying with her or does he love her? Along for the rideare the great Kathleen Chalfant as Helena's no-nonsense housekeeper and a very appealing Michael Goldsmithas an adoring delivery boy (man! he would say) who loves Helena as only a teenager can.The play begins arrestingly in Helena's shabby but neat home in the middle of the night. (John Lee Beatty's sethints awkwardly at the Vienna just off stage here, though the home is fine and he offers a very detailed andconvincing cemetery later on.) It's dark, not a word is said and the clock ticks ominously on the wall, makingclear that something urgent is at hand. A woman veiled and all in black leads a man inside, money is wordlesslyexchanged and they have sex. But it's the tension and drama of the scene that stays with us. She is tentativebut determined, ashamed (perhaps?) but resolved to do what she must. The man is polite, then eager and thenrelentlessly rough as passion overcomes him. She is left in tears even as he yearns clearly to ask for anotherassignation. Nothing that comes after it can match this opening scene by the two leads.Indeed, the more the play proceeds, the more it loses focus. The minor characters know who they are and areconvincingly delivered. But Helena remains a mystery. Her relationship with her friend Mitzi and even the
12/12/2015Theater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales From Red Vienna | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ac5602b6-d9a3-4b97-ad2f-0d032fcd7a67&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/3delivery boy seems to waver from scene to scene, and not in an interesting way. Does Bela love her? Can he betrusted? Or will he tire of her once the allure of sleeping (for free) with a prostitute wears off?It seems to be moving towards depicting a woman in mourning (though she is mourning her circumstances, nota husband she apparently married too soon and admired but didn't love). Slowly, this woman comes back to lifethanks to a new lover, her disposition lightening just as her widow's weeds go from black to grey to white withthe passage of time.And yet, there's far more specificity in the costumes of Anita Yavich and the wigs and makeup of Tom Watsonthan the words of Grimm. Director Kate Whoriskey (the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined) can hardly be blamed forlosing track of the emotions when the playwright did when writing it. That may be why the unchanging,secondary characters played by Chalfant and Benko and Goldsmith remain more vivid and enjoyable even asHelena and Bela become confusing.SPOILER: Stop here if you are planning to see Tales From Red Vienna (and since it stars Arianda, I'd hardly besurprised if you were). But it's hard to discuss the show without tackling the second act. That involves a majorplot twist. In a bizarre deus ex machina, Mitzi suddenly brings Helena's husband back from the grave in revengefor finding her boy toy sleeping with a friend she considers beneath herself. It turns out Karl (Lucas Hall) wasn'tdead but just a deserter. After months under an assumed name in a hospital and then living overseas afraid toreturn, he's decided to show up and drag Helena off to a new life.Hall makes no impression (beyond looking perfect for playing the younger brother to Matthew Morrison)because this is where Grimm goes completely off the rails. Even though Helena all but declared her love forBela right before this shocking, soap-like revelation (and if she wasn't declaring her love, it's very poorly written),suddenly she doesn't know what she wants. Her husband is a dolt and a demanding one at that (when he callsher an adulterer, why does no one mention she could hardly be an adulterer when she believed her husband tobe dead?).But suddenly, Helena becomes self-actualized or something: she doesn't want her lover and she doesn't wanther husband. ("I'm warning you for the last time!" she suddenly blurts out -- or something like that -- in a momentof passion, though we've missed when she was warning him before to go away or leave her alone or whatever itis she thinks she's warned him about.) Huh? If Grimm means to show a woman coming back to life and findingthe inner strength to stand on her own two feet without the need of a lover she has outgrown or a husband shedoesn't love (and who would?), well, he hasn't written that play. Not even close.Arianda and Esper have chemistry but they're unable to maintain their fire when the actions of their charactersfail to make any sense. Without any words, the elemental scene of two people in a room, people filled withdesire and desperation and cynicism and despair can grip us. But tales should know where they're going andmake sense in the end, even if they didn't make sense along the way. Tales From Red Vienna makes no senseat the end, even if talented actors keep us fitfully engaged while the teller strays further and further from hispath.THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King ***Hard Times ** 1/2Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead **I Could Say More *
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ac5602b6-d9a3-4b97-ad2f-0d032fcd7a67&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/3Theater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales FromRed ViennaTheater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales From Red ViennaTALES FROM RED VIENNA ** out of ****MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUBWhat's the most essential skill for an actor who wants a successful and creatively satisfying career? It's nottalent. A lot of actors have talent. A lot of stars don't. But for the lucky few who actually get a shot at shapingtheir career, the most under-appreciated skill they need is picking the right roles, the right shows, the right talentto work with.Actress Nina Arianda burst onto the scene with her Tony-winning turn in Venus In Fur and has followed up withmovies like the gem Win Win and Woody Allen's Oscar-winning Midnight In Paris, not to mention her Tony-nominated Broadway debut in Born Yesterday. Tales From Red Vienna is not a similar success but playwrightDavid Grimm is a serious talent with support from The Public, Sundance, Hartford Stage and others. Perhapsthey'll click on some future project and her commitment to him will pay off. For now, we have a muddled effort ofserious intent that is likely a stumble on the way to further success or -- perhaps -- an indication of questionabletaste from her team.Seeing who can capitalize on opportunity and who cannot is one of the fascinating aspects of the arts that israrely tracked. With three movies in the bank and producers lining up to capitalize on her instant and well-deserved acclaim, Arianda will surely have plenty of chances to prove her taste is as dependable as her talent.On paper, it's certainly a plum role. Helena (Arianda) is a war widow in Vienna barely subsisting after herhusband died in the trenches of World War I. Fallen on hard times, she has turned to prostitution. Almost as if oncue, an old "friend" Mutzi (Tina Benko) flits back into Helena's life. Wealthy and indifferent to others, Mitzi hascome to pay her respects and see how Helena is doing... 18 months after Helena's husband died. In fact, shewants Helena to serve as a discrete cover so Mitzi can take her new young lover Bela (a solid Michael Esper)out on the town. To both Helena and Bela's dismay, they realize he has been a client of hers. But thisimpassioned young journalist won't leave her alone. Is he toying with her or does he love her? Along for the rideare the great Kathleen Chalfant as Helena's no-nonsense housekeeper and a very appealing Michael Goldsmithas an adoring delivery boy (man! he would say) who loves Helena as only a teenager can.The play begins arrestingly in Helena's shabby but neat home in the middle of the night. (John Lee Beatty's sethints awkwardly at the Vienna just off stage here, though the home is fine and he offers a very detailed andconvincing cemetery later on.) It's dark, not a word is said and the clock ticks ominously on the wall, makingclear that something urgent is at hand. A woman veiled and all in black leads a man inside, money is wordlesslyexchanged and they have sex. But it's the tension and drama of the scene that stays with us. She is tentativebut determined, ashamed (perhaps?) but resolved to do what she must. The man is polite, then eager and thenrelentlessly rough as passion overcomes him. She is left in tears even as he yearns clearly to ask for anotherassignation. Nothing that comes after it can match this opening scene by the two leads.Indeed, the more the play proceeds, the more it loses focus. The minor characters know who they are and areconvincingly delivered. But Helena remains a mystery. Her relationship with her friend Mitzi and even the
12/12/2015Theater: Arianda Can't Rescue Murky Tales From Red Vienna | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ac5602b6-d9a3-4b97-ad2f-0d032fcd7a67&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/3delivery boy seems to waver from scene to scene, and not in an interesting way. Does Bela love her? Can he betrusted? Or will he tire of her once the allure of sleeping (for free) with a prostitute wears off?It seems to be moving towards depicting a woman in mourning (though she is mourning her circumstances, nota husband she apparently married too soon and admired but didn't love). Slowly, this woman comes back to lifethanks to a new lover, her disposition lightening just as her widow's weeds go from black to grey to white withthe passage of time.And yet, there's far more specificity in the costumes of Anita Yavich and the wigs and makeup of Tom Watsonthan the words of Grimm. Director Kate Whoriskey (the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined) can hardly be blamed forlosing track of the emotions when the playwright did when writing it. That may be why the unchanging,secondary characters played by Chalfant and Benko and Goldsmith remain more vivid and enjoyable even asHelena and Bela become confusing.SPOILER: Stop here if you are planning to see Tales From Red Vienna (and since it stars Arianda, I'd hardly besurprised if you were). But it's hard to discuss the show without tackling the second act. That involves a majorplot twist. In a bizarre deus ex machina, Mitzi suddenly brings Helena's husband back from the grave in revengefor finding her boy toy sleeping with a friend she considers beneath herself. It turns out Karl (Lucas Hall) wasn'tdead but just a deserter. After months under an assumed name in a hospital and then living overseas afraid toreturn, he's decided to show up and drag Helena off to a new life.Hall makes no impression (beyond looking perfect for playing the younger brother to Matthew Morrison)because this is where Grimm goes completely off the rails. Even though Helena all but declared her love forBela right before this shocking, soap-like revelation (and if she wasn't declaring her love, it's very poorly written),suddenly she doesn't know what she wants. Her husband is a dolt and a demanding one at that (when he callsher an adulterer, why does no one mention she could hardly be an adulterer when she believed her husband tobe dead?).But suddenly, Helena becomes self-actualized or something: she doesn't want her lover and she doesn't wanther husband. ("I'm warning you for the last time!" she suddenly blurts out -- or something like that -- in a momentof passion, though we've missed when she was warning him before to go away or leave her alone or whatever itis she thinks she's warned him about.) Huh? If Grimm means to show a woman coming back to life and findingthe inner strength to stand on her own two feet without the need of a lover she has outgrown or a husband shedoesn't love (and who would?), well, he hasn't written that play. Not even close.Arianda and Esper have chemistry but they're unable to maintain their fire when the actions of their charactersfail to make any sense. Without any words, the elemental scene of two people in a room, people filled withdesire and desperation and cynicism and despair can grip us. But tales should know where they're going andmake sense in the end, even if they didn't make sense along the way. Tales From Red Vienna makes no senseat the end, even if talented actors keep us fitfully engaged while the teller strays further and further from hispath.THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King ***Hard Times ** 1/2Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead **I Could Say More *