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12/12/2015Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for Denzel | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f02b4c0d-bac4-4887-8180-e5abe9518d53&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for DenzelTheater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for DenzelTHE THREEPENNY OPERA * 1/2 out of **** A RAISIN IN THE SUN *** 1/2 out of ****THE THREEPENNY OPERA * 1/2 out of **** ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY AT LINDA GROSS THEATERI love The Threepenny Opera even though I've never seen a good production. I grew up with the Broadway castalbum from 1954 featuring Lotte Lenya (I think Rolling Stone, of all places, had it on a list of great albums -- atoken nod to musical theater -- and I got hooked.) Kander and Ebb clearly loved Kurt Weill and I've oftenimagined it as the Cabaret or Chicago of its day, a gloriously sleazy work filled with humor and pathos andcynicism. (Cynicism ages much better than optimism, Rodgers and Hammerstein excepted.)A great production of it will feel completely of the moment, as if it were composed yesterday, not in 1928.Despite formidable talent on stage, the Atlantic Theater's new staging of this show (the version with Englishadaptation by Marc Blitzstein) sadly does not. Some shows immediately create a sense of place and time.Others feel like people playing dress up and never let you forget for a moment this isn't real. The great MarthaClarke directed and choreographed and I fear when so much of a show is unfocused and lacking in a guidingspirit that the blame must fall squarely on her shoulders. When the chorus and almost every minor part feelsslapdash and unconvincing, something has gone terribly wrong.This missed opportunity presents a work that feels like a cross between a revue and a fully written musical.Macheath (Michael Park) -- that powerful player in the underworld -- has returned and he's soon wooing andmarrying Polly (Laura Osnes), with the minor inconveniences of a pregnant wife (Lilli Cooper) and the love ofevery prostitute in town including Jenny (Sally Murphy) hardly worth bothering about.Macheath fears no one (he has the police commissioner in the palm of his hand) but he hasn't counted onPolly's scheming parents (F. Murray Abraham and Mary Beth Peil). They're soon bribing whores and conningthe cops into arresting Macheath and before you know it he's got a rope around his neck and scant hope ofsurvival.The production of a show so cheap and lacking in resources it is called a "threepenny" opera is meant to betatty. But nothing here from the set design to the costumes to the lighting that (intentionally?) sometimesstruggles to spotlight a singer) feels clever or inspired. It would be unfair to list all the work that falls short, sinceClarke is clearly the one that failed them, though Abraham and Peil seem especially at sea here.But certain moments let you glimpse the greatness that can be had. On the plus side, Michael Park (foreverJack Snyder of ATWL but with a growing and impressive body of theater work) has the presence and oily charmfor Macheath. If nothing else, we understand the sexual heat that has drawn Polly away from her family. AsPolly, Osnes seems indifferent and above her doomed romance. It's not quite clear what's driving her beyondlust or why her parents seem so determined to thwart it. (Is it a question of thieves trusting other thieves least ofall?)But boy can Osnes sing -- her version of "Barbara Song" after their wedding was inspired and moody andfascinating and vivid, everything most of the show was not. Similarly, Murphy shone during "Pirate Jenny," a
12/12/2015Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for Denzel | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f02b4c0d-bac4-4887-8180-e5abe9518d53&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4number which -- along with "Ballad Of Mack The Knife" -- has become a standard. It was the best sort ofcharacter-driven performance that shocked you awake with her anger, bitter dreams of revenge and illusoryimportance.Far more often, we are bored, ho-humming as chorus members get it off in faux sexual desire during bignumbers, with couples and threesomes and same-sex pairings that ultimately feel timid and dull. Some partswere broadly comic, others felt like sketch comedy and still others strove for realism, with the overriding sensethat no one was on the same page. This Threepenny felt short not just of "funds" as the title demands but ofimagination, which its rich material deserves.A RAISIN IN THE SUN *** 1/2 out of **** ETHEL BARRYMORE THEATREThe top-notch cast in this revival of A Raisin In The Sun is unassailable. It's a shame the great Diahann Carrolldidn't feel up to making this a well-deserved victory lap. But surely she along with everyone else will be cheeringalong the marvelous LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who has blown me away in Joe Turner's Come And Goneand other shows. Now Jackson is 14 years younger than Carroll but with a dash of grey in her hair, I had noproblem picturing this contemporary of star Denzel Washington as his mother. It's the theater! You wouldn't casther to be his mother in a movie or TV show, but onstage? Why not?Of course that brings me to Washington. I called him the star, but he's part of an ensemble here, too smart to tilta show in his direction when it has so many great roles for women. Now he's about 20 years to old to play a 35-or 40-year-old man... on film. On stage? I never thought about it for a second, or at least I wouldn't have if othershadn't brought it up. That's the beauty of theater where a young man can play an old man... or an old woman...or a cat, for that matter. In this realistic setting, of course, the demands are different and Washington meetsthem with ease. He's a driven, hard-working man hitting his middle years, dreaming of more for himself and hisfamily, aged perhaps a little before his time and determined to take a chance on himself rather than just settlinglike his father and his father's father. At least, that's how he sees it.Like all classics, Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin feels utterly relevant for today, with working class people realizingno matter how hard they struggle, they're falling further and further behind. Walter Lee Younger (Washington) isa chauffeur, his wife Ruth (a terrific Sophie Okonedo) is worn out with worry, his sister Beneatha (Anika NoniRose) is determined to be a doctor and shares a room with their mom Lena (Jackson) while his son Travis(Bryce Clyde Jenkins) sleeps on the couch.It's so exhausting just getting up in the morning (you have to race the neighbors for a chance to get into thecommunal bathroom) that it's a lot easier to see where you're not headed to then how far you've come. But helpis on the way: thanks to a life insurance policy that kicked in when Walter Lee's father drove himself into an earlygrave with work (there's a bittersweet reward for you), Lena is about to receive a check for the life-changing sumof $10,000. Walter Lee wants to open a liquor store with two other friends, Ruth can't help being drawn to Lena'ssuggestion they buy a home of their own and everyone but Walter Lee knows some of that money will definitelybe sending Beneatha to medical school.Here's an interview with Denzel Washington on ABC:It's a rock solid play, classic in its structure and setting and prescient in so many ways. Hansberry died way tooyoung at the age of 34, but she left behind a substantial body of work, not least of which is this her most popularwork. Assimilation, a burgeoning sense of female empowerment, the insidious, self-fulfilling effects of grindingeconomic hardship and addiction, each new generation's almost desperate need to reject the one before as theyforge ahead -- all of it is here in a richly rewarding piece that is first and foremost a gripping story.Director Kenny Leon doesn't miss a beat here, blessed with a major work and a cast to deliver it. Tricky smaller
12/12/2015Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for Denzel | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f02b4c0d-bac4-4887-8180-e5abe9518d53&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/4parts like Beneatha's well-to-do boyfriend George (Jason Dirden) and the hard to pull off student from NigeriaJoseph Asagai (a very good Sean Patrick Thomas) come off perfectly. David Cromer also strikes just the rightnote of friendly prejudice as Karl Lindner, the white representative of the neighborhood association theYoungers are moving to who wants to welcome them with a check and a request to move right away again. AndI'm not one for entrance applause, but it was fun to see the remarkable Stephen McKinley Henderson receive itfor his small turn as Bobo, a friend of Walter Lee's with some bad news to impart.But it's Walter Lee and the three women in his life who garner our attention most of all. Jackson is wonderfullygrounded as Lena, amusing as she stumbles to chat with Asagai in a way that won't embarrass her daughterand fiery when reacting to that same daughter's proclamation that God is dead. As that burgeoning atheist(which Hansberry was as well), Rose is wonderful. If I were a theater actress about her same age, I'd truly hateRose because at this point she must be getting every role even remotely suited to her. In a marvelous Broadwaydebut, the Oscar nominated Okonedo (the film Hotel Rwanda) is taut and tired, so believably exhausted byfighting with her husband and trying to keep the peace that we're not surprised when she collapses - we'resurprised she was able to stay standing for so long.And Washington long ago proved he was born to the stage. His Walter Lee is proud and determined and a littlefoolish and a little too proud at times and funny and smart and wholly human. His drunken scene is a standout,not because it's so funny (which it is) but because the fierce desperation he feels is so painfully present at thesame time. Only two things are lacking on his resume: more movies about Easy Rawlins and even more theater.They weren't messing around here. Wynton Marsalis helped select the musical cues played at certain momentsof the show. An interview by Studs Terkel is playing when the audience enters the theater. I'm not sure I neededthe glimpse of blue sky at the finale, but the set design by Mark Thompson was otherwise flawless. (I loved howJackson as Lena slipped into blackness at the end of the first act.) The lighting by Brian Macdevitt, costumes byAnn Roth and sound design by Scott Lehrer never called attention to themselves, which is sometimes the bestcompliment one can pay.The same can be said of Leon's direction and Hansberry's writing, both of which are confident and true. To thinkin a few weeks, Leon will be directing a new musical inspired by the poetry of Tupac Shakur, another artist takento soon. Leon looks set to be having a heck of a year.Here's Langston Hughes reading the poem that inspired the title of this play.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 ***
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f02b4c0d-bac4-4887-8180-e5abe9518d53&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for DenzelTheater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for DenzelTHE THREEPENNY OPERA * 1/2 out of **** A RAISIN IN THE SUN *** 1/2 out of ****THE THREEPENNY OPERA * 1/2 out of **** ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY AT LINDA GROSS THEATERI love The Threepenny Opera even though I've never seen a good production. I grew up with the Broadway castalbum from 1954 featuring Lotte Lenya (I think Rolling Stone, of all places, had it on a list of great albums -- atoken nod to musical theater -- and I got hooked.) Kander and Ebb clearly loved Kurt Weill and I've oftenimagined it as the Cabaret or Chicago of its day, a gloriously sleazy work filled with humor and pathos andcynicism. (Cynicism ages much better than optimism, Rodgers and Hammerstein excepted.)A great production of it will feel completely of the moment, as if it were composed yesterday, not in 1928.Despite formidable talent on stage, the Atlantic Theater's new staging of this show (the version with Englishadaptation by Marc Blitzstein) sadly does not. Some shows immediately create a sense of place and time.Others feel like people playing dress up and never let you forget for a moment this isn't real. The great MarthaClarke directed and choreographed and I fear when so much of a show is unfocused and lacking in a guidingspirit that the blame must fall squarely on her shoulders. When the chorus and almost every minor part feelsslapdash and unconvincing, something has gone terribly wrong.This missed opportunity presents a work that feels like a cross between a revue and a fully written musical.Macheath (Michael Park) -- that powerful player in the underworld -- has returned and he's soon wooing andmarrying Polly (Laura Osnes), with the minor inconveniences of a pregnant wife (Lilli Cooper) and the love ofevery prostitute in town including Jenny (Sally Murphy) hardly worth bothering about.Macheath fears no one (he has the police commissioner in the palm of his hand) but he hasn't counted onPolly's scheming parents (F. Murray Abraham and Mary Beth Peil). They're soon bribing whores and conningthe cops into arresting Macheath and before you know it he's got a rope around his neck and scant hope ofsurvival.The production of a show so cheap and lacking in resources it is called a "threepenny" opera is meant to betatty. But nothing here from the set design to the costumes to the lighting that (intentionally?) sometimesstruggles to spotlight a singer) feels clever or inspired. It would be unfair to list all the work that falls short, sinceClarke is clearly the one that failed them, though Abraham and Peil seem especially at sea here.But certain moments let you glimpse the greatness that can be had. On the plus side, Michael Park (foreverJack Snyder of ATWL but with a growing and impressive body of theater work) has the presence and oily charmfor Macheath. If nothing else, we understand the sexual heat that has drawn Polly away from her family. AsPolly, Osnes seems indifferent and above her doomed romance. It's not quite clear what's driving her beyondlust or why her parents seem so determined to thwart it. (Is it a question of thieves trusting other thieves least ofall?)But boy can Osnes sing -- her version of "Barbara Song" after their wedding was inspired and moody andfascinating and vivid, everything most of the show was not. Similarly, Murphy shone during "Pirate Jenny," a
12/12/2015Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for Denzel | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f02b4c0d-bac4-4887-8180-e5abe9518d53&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4number which -- along with "Ballad Of Mack The Knife" -- has become a standard. It was the best sort ofcharacter-driven performance that shocked you awake with her anger, bitter dreams of revenge and illusoryimportance.Far more often, we are bored, ho-humming as chorus members get it off in faux sexual desire during bignumbers, with couples and threesomes and same-sex pairings that ultimately feel timid and dull. Some partswere broadly comic, others felt like sketch comedy and still others strove for realism, with the overriding sensethat no one was on the same page. This Threepenny felt short not just of "funds" as the title demands but ofimagination, which its rich material deserves.A RAISIN IN THE SUN *** 1/2 out of **** ETHEL BARRYMORE THEATREThe top-notch cast in this revival of A Raisin In The Sun is unassailable. It's a shame the great Diahann Carrolldidn't feel up to making this a well-deserved victory lap. But surely she along with everyone else will be cheeringalong the marvelous LaTanya Richardson Jackson, who has blown me away in Joe Turner's Come And Goneand other shows. Now Jackson is 14 years younger than Carroll but with a dash of grey in her hair, I had noproblem picturing this contemporary of star Denzel Washington as his mother. It's the theater! You wouldn't casther to be his mother in a movie or TV show, but onstage? Why not?Of course that brings me to Washington. I called him the star, but he's part of an ensemble here, too smart to tilta show in his direction when it has so many great roles for women. Now he's about 20 years to old to play a 35-or 40-year-old man... on film. On stage? I never thought about it for a second, or at least I wouldn't have if othershadn't brought it up. That's the beauty of theater where a young man can play an old man... or an old woman...or a cat, for that matter. In this realistic setting, of course, the demands are different and Washington meetsthem with ease. He's a driven, hard-working man hitting his middle years, dreaming of more for himself and hisfamily, aged perhaps a little before his time and determined to take a chance on himself rather than just settlinglike his father and his father's father. At least, that's how he sees it.Like all classics, Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin feels utterly relevant for today, with working class people realizingno matter how hard they struggle, they're falling further and further behind. Walter Lee Younger (Washington) isa chauffeur, his wife Ruth (a terrific Sophie Okonedo) is worn out with worry, his sister Beneatha (Anika NoniRose) is determined to be a doctor and shares a room with their mom Lena (Jackson) while his son Travis(Bryce Clyde Jenkins) sleeps on the couch.It's so exhausting just getting up in the morning (you have to race the neighbors for a chance to get into thecommunal bathroom) that it's a lot easier to see where you're not headed to then how far you've come. But helpis on the way: thanks to a life insurance policy that kicked in when Walter Lee's father drove himself into an earlygrave with work (there's a bittersweet reward for you), Lena is about to receive a check for the life-changing sumof $10,000. Walter Lee wants to open a liquor store with two other friends, Ruth can't help being drawn to Lena'ssuggestion they buy a home of their own and everyone but Walter Lee knows some of that money will definitelybe sending Beneatha to medical school.Here's an interview with Denzel Washington on ABC:It's a rock solid play, classic in its structure and setting and prescient in so many ways. Hansberry died way tooyoung at the age of 34, but she left behind a substantial body of work, not least of which is this her most popularwork. Assimilation, a burgeoning sense of female empowerment, the insidious, self-fulfilling effects of grindingeconomic hardship and addiction, each new generation's almost desperate need to reject the one before as theyforge ahead -- all of it is here in a richly rewarding piece that is first and foremost a gripping story.Director Kenny Leon doesn't miss a beat here, blessed with a major work and a cast to deliver it. Tricky smaller
12/12/2015Theater: Mild Threepenny; Blazin' Raisin for Denzel | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f02b4c0d-bac4-4887-8180-e5abe9518d53&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/4parts like Beneatha's well-to-do boyfriend George (Jason Dirden) and the hard to pull off student from NigeriaJoseph Asagai (a very good Sean Patrick Thomas) come off perfectly. David Cromer also strikes just the rightnote of friendly prejudice as Karl Lindner, the white representative of the neighborhood association theYoungers are moving to who wants to welcome them with a check and a request to move right away again. AndI'm not one for entrance applause, but it was fun to see the remarkable Stephen McKinley Henderson receive itfor his small turn as Bobo, a friend of Walter Lee's with some bad news to impart.But it's Walter Lee and the three women in his life who garner our attention most of all. Jackson is wonderfullygrounded as Lena, amusing as she stumbles to chat with Asagai in a way that won't embarrass her daughterand fiery when reacting to that same daughter's proclamation that God is dead. As that burgeoning atheist(which Hansberry was as well), Rose is wonderful. If I were a theater actress about her same age, I'd truly hateRose because at this point she must be getting every role even remotely suited to her. In a marvelous Broadwaydebut, the Oscar nominated Okonedo (the film Hotel Rwanda) is taut and tired, so believably exhausted byfighting with her husband and trying to keep the peace that we're not surprised when she collapses - we'resurprised she was able to stay standing for so long.And Washington long ago proved he was born to the stage. His Walter Lee is proud and determined and a littlefoolish and a little too proud at times and funny and smart and wholly human. His drunken scene is a standout,not because it's so funny (which it is) but because the fierce desperation he feels is so painfully present at thesame time. Only two things are lacking on his resume: more movies about Easy Rawlins and even more theater.They weren't messing around here. Wynton Marsalis helped select the musical cues played at certain momentsof the show. An interview by Studs Terkel is playing when the audience enters the theater. I'm not sure I neededthe glimpse of blue sky at the finale, but the set design by Mark Thompson was otherwise flawless. (I loved howJackson as Lena slipped into blackness at the end of the first act.) The lighting by Brian Macdevitt, costumes byAnn Roth and sound design by Scott Lehrer never called attention to themselves, which is sometimes the bestcompliment one can pay.The same can be said of Leon's direction and Hansberry's writing, both of which are confident and true. To thinkin a few weeks, Leon will be directing a new musical inspired by the poetry of Tupac Shakur, another artist takento soon. Leon looks set to be having a heck of a year.Here's Langston Hughes reading the poem that inspired the title of this play.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 ***