Theater Mighty Real Mighty Fun Amiable Youth

SEO TEXT: Article Content for Search Engines

12/15/2015Mighty Real Mighty Fun; Amiable Youth | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=d8a97e7c-63c1-4814-b04e-93eb274ef023&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/5Mighty Real Mighty Fun; Amiable YouthMighty Real Mighty Fun; Amiable YouthMIGHTY REAL *** out of **** THIS IS OUR YOUTH *** out of ****MIGHTY REAL *** out of **** THEATRE AT ST. CLEMENT'SWhy haven't they made a musical about Sylvester? Teasingly and boldly nicknamed the Queen Of Disco,Sylvester had a clutch of hits and worked high heels with such fierceness that even Hedwig would have to stepback and admire him. He also had a tragic, all too brief life that included ostracism for being gay and modestsuccess soon snuffed out by AIDS. But a musical? For me, Sylvester was always more interesting as a gayicon, a trailblazer, rather than as an artist. Hey, he has two or three great singles to his credit -- "You Make MeFeel (Mighty Real)," "Dance (Disco Heat)" and "Do You Wanna Funk!" That's better than most acts can everdream about. But it's not much to build a musical around.Well, Mighty Real flips over everything I expected, mostly in good ways. Written starring, co-directed and co-produced by Anthony Wayne, it makes terrific use of the few great singles and memorable covers of Sylvester,along with a handful of wisely chosen "surprises" to flesh the discography out. Actually, it's the book that isn'tterribly interesting, with Sylvester's life following the usual bio-musical route: modest anecdote followed by songfollowed by quick joke followed by song followed by tear-jerking revelation followed by song.Happily, Mighty Realgets it mostly mighty right. The chatter is kept to a minimum (and could even be trimmed alittle more, though god knows it's pretty minimal as it is). The onstage band led by Alonzo Harris (with JamesCage tearing it up on trumpet) is excellent. The four backup singers are tight and also help fill the theater.Though "backup singer" doesn't quite do justice to Jacqueline B. Arnold as Martha Wash and choreographerAnastacia McCleskey as Izora Armstead. They tear it up performing songs by divas that influenced Sylvester (acanny way to broaden the show's musical offerings).In fact, they're so good that Wayne gets the night's biggest laugh by looking peeved over their spotlight-stealingvocals. (In a rare bit of complexity, he's also genuinely hurt later in the show when they go off on their own tobecome The Weather Girls and enjoy the one-hit wonder that was "It's Raining Men," another non-Sylvestersong performed in full, thank goodness.)Truly, it's no diss to say the show is being staged in the modest Theatre At St. Clement's with about $5 for theset (there's a disco ball and a giant "SYLVESTER" logo and that's it) and modest costumes (created by co-director and co-producer Kendrell Bowman). And yet it feels like a blast.The performance lasts about 90 minutes, includes numerous show-stopping turns by Wayne that are faithful tothe arrangements of Sylvester and his Two Tons Of Fun singers yet never feels like mimicry. It ends of coursewith the lyrically silly but musically unstoppable "Dance (Disco Heat)" and the undeniable classic "You Make MeFeel (Mighty Real)."Site-specific settings are all the rage and it's easy to see this show could have a strong Off Broadway run in anactual disco where the floor was lit up like Saturday Night Fever, where the audience could drink and boogie todisco-era classics for half an hour before the show began and where they could stand and shake their booties12/15/2015Mighty Real Mighty Fun; Amiable Youth | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=d8a97e7c-63c1-4814-b04e-93eb274ef023&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/5throughout rather than have to sit down in a theater. Wayne, his ladies and the terrific band really do completejustice to the era and the spirit of Sylvester in this show with its heart in the right place and more importantly itsmusic sounding as good as ever.THIS IS OUR YOUTH *** out of **** CORT THEATREDoes Kenneth Lonergan belong on Broadway? Talent-wise, of course he does. Lonergan is a distinctive voiceon stage and film. But his work is shaggy, lumpy, and disarmingly low-key. Broadway may simply not be thesetting to do justice to his plays. I've seen works like Lobby Hero and The Waverly Gallery in small theaters withgreat casts and never thought for a moment, why isn't this transferring to Broadway? They were right where theybelong.The same is not true unfortunately for This Is Our Youth, Lonergan's breakthrough work that I missed the firsttime around. Here it is with Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin and Tavi Gevinson, allowing Lonergan to make hisBroadway debut. It's an amiable, amusing evening of theater. But one can easily imagine the sharper, tighter,more dangerous show it might be in a smaller space with a savvier cast.The story is simple enough. Warren (Cera) is the disaffected son of a very powerful businessman in NYC. Hisdad is not a crook, but he does business with crooks, if you get the distinction. Warren's been kicked out of hisdad's house (again) and decides to grab $15,000 in cash as a parting gift. Where better to crash than theapartment of his friend and drug connection Dennis (Culkin), an egotistical "pal" who is constantly runningWarren down when not feuding with his girlfriend over the phone?It's 1982 so when Warren blows more than $1,000 on a date with Jessica (Gevinson), it's truly a shockingamount of money. Dennis concocts several schemes to make up the difference once Warren realizes he has toreturn the $15,000 or truly feel the wrath of his father. They can buy some coke wholesale and resell it and/orthey can pawn off Warren's hapless collection of antique memorabilia -- toys from his childhood and other nerdycollectibles.As directed by Anna D. Shapiro, this Steppenwolf production has a slack nature to it, one incident rambling oninto the next and no sense of building tension. That's part of the problem: Warren and Dennis seem like blitheslackers, not the children of privilege they should. In fact even the setting and the costumes don't particularlyevoke 1982.It's a credit to Lonergan's writing that This Is Our Youth isn't burdened with dated references but there should besome indication -- beyond the lack of cell phones -- as to when the story takes place and who it involves. Morecrucially, the tension between Warren and Dennis also feels slack. There's no sense of danger that one of themmight explode or even that they're in actual harm's way, despite the ODing of a friend and general air of menaceone should sense. In 1982 New York City, even walking down the street could feel a little dicey, wealthy parentsor not.The heart of this production is Warren's awkward dance of romance with Jessica. I was quite prepared todiscover that Gevinson was the weak link in this show and she's certainly not quite up there yet with Culkin andCera. But she held her own and had as appropriate, awkwardly endearing way on stage. Cera was hilarious ashe blurted out the wrong thing at the wrong time to her or tried to dance along to a record he'd put on theturntable.But the big confrontation between Warren and Dennis? It passed by almost unnoticed. The sense of danger?That felt remote and unimportant, whether it was the danger from outside or from each other. Could either ofthese two guys genuinely hurt the other one, either physically or emotionally? No. The stakes were low and gotlower as the night went on. While I've never seen This Is Our Youth or even read it before, surely that's not what12/15/2015Mighty Real Mighty Fun; Amiable Youth | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=d8a97e7c-63c1-4814-b04e-93eb274ef023&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/5an ideal production would bring out. Nonetheless, Cera and Culkin are appealing presences on stage and theevening floated by rather pleasantly.It was like cocaine that had been cut too much. You felt modestly buzzed but naggingly certain that somehowyou'd been cheated a little bit as well.THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King *** Hard Times ** 1/2 Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ** I Could Say More * The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner ** Machinal *** Outside Mullingar *** A Man's A Man * 1/2 The Tribute Artist ** 1/2 Transport ** Prince Igor at the Met ** The Bridges Of Madison County ** 1/2 Kung Fu (at Signature) ** Stage Kiss *** Satchmo At The Waldorf *** Antony and Cleopatra at the Public ** All The Way ** 1/2 The Open House (Will Eno at Signature) ** 1/2 Wozzeck (at Met w Deborah Voigt and Thomas Hampson and Simon O'Neill) Hand To God *** Tales From Red Vienna ** Appropriate (at Signature) * Rocky * 1/2 Aladdin *** Mothers And Sons ** Les Miserables *** 1/2 Breathing Time * 1/2 Cirque Du Soleil's Amaluna * 1/2 Heathers The Musical * 1/2 Red Velvet, at St. Ann's Warehouse *** Broadway By The Year 1940-1964 *** 1/2 A Second Chance ** Guys And Dolls *** 1/2 If/Then * 1/2 The Threepenny Opera * 1/2 A Raisin In The Sun *** 1/2 The Heir Apparent *** 1/2 The Realistic Joneses *** Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill *** The Library **

Theater Mighty Real Mighty Fun Amiable Youth

📄 Theater Mighty Real Mighty Fun Amiable Youth

SEO TEXT: Article Content for Search Engines