TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2019 THEATER: "BURN THIS" BARELY SMOLDERS BURN THIS ** out of **** HUDSON THEATRE Oh the mystery of chemistry.</p><p> Two actors can be happily married in real life and yet on camera or onstage...nothing.</p><p> The reverse is true, of course.</p><p> Two actors can despise each other and yet sparks flies on stageand on film.</p><p> You never really know what will happen until theyactually share the same space and put in some work.</p><p> More's the pity.</p><p> When you're casting actors of the fame and calibre of Keri Russell and Adam Driver, they don't audition.</p><p> Of course not.</p><p> But they also don't sittogether in a room and check to see if they're compatible, if they canfeel that electric charge, that extra intensity that says "We've gotsomething here." Maybe they should.</p><p> Lanford Wilson's Burn This was the last major success of the Pulitzer Prize-winner who helped revolutionize Off Off Broadway.</p><p> Over the years, it has dimmed in the collective memory, now usually seen as a flawed play galvanized by Joan Allen and especially John Malcovich in a legendary, barn-burning performance.</p><p> Any revival worth its salthopes to redeem a show's first success or rescue a work from suchretrospective downgrading.</p><p> After 20 years away from Broadway,Wilson will have to wait for redemption.</p><p> The utter lack of chemistrybetween the two leads makes the play confusing to newcomers like myself and leads to all sorts of lazy puns on a production not catching fire.</p><p> Russell is Anna, a young choreographer in the world of modern dance who shares a loft-like apartment in New York City with two gay men while dating a wealthy screenwriter.</p><p> One of her roommates has just died tragically and she returns home, having endured a funeral whereit was clear the family never saw their dancer son strut his stuff, can'tor won't admit he was gay and prefer to pretend Anna was the dead man's lover.</p><p> She pours this out to her boyfriend Burton (David Furr)until her gay pal Larry comes home (Brandon Uranowitz, having theMICHAEL GILTZ AT WORK Michael Giltz is a freelance writer based in NYC and can be reached atmgiltz@pipeline.com FAVORITE LINKS Americablog Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN Radio Cine-Blog -- George Robinson's Blog Documents On Art & Cinema - Daryl Chin's Blog Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce Greenspan's Blog BLOG ARCHIVE ▼ 2019 (31) ► June (1) ► May (9) ▼ April (10)most fun in the cast) and pours it all out again to him.</p><p> At least the worst is over.</p><p> Photo copyright 2019 Matthew Murphy But it's not.</p><p> Late in the first act, late at night, Pale begins pounding on their door.</p><p> Pale (Adam Driver) is the brother of the dead dancer andhe's nominally there to pick up then guy's stuff.</p><p> But Pale is drunk and belligerent, a motormouth who can't stop complaining in blunt, blue collar terms about the city, the streets, about parking and what about adrink and Anna sure is good looking.</p><p> Sparks -- at least on the page --fly.</p><p> Now in the play I saw, Pale is a thoroughly unappealing louse.</p><p> Of course he's not Anna's type (not officially anyway), but he reallydoesn't seem anyone's type.</p><p> He's dressed like a slob, but is obsessiveabout his pants being kept spotless.</p><p> Pale wears silk shirts of the sort alow-level thug in the mob might wear thinking it's classy.</p><p> He's themanager of a restaurant and I think he said it was in Jersey and I thought, well it wouldn't be in Manhattan, not this bruiser.</p><p> When Larry says he's been to the restaurant (twice) and it's quite good, I'msurprised.</p><p> Looking at him, you'd expect he manages an anonymousItalian restaurant with cheap house wine.</p><p> Pale is definitely a character.</p><p> He's loud and tiresome and drunk and angry and maybe sort of sad about his brother dying and maybe youfeel a little bad for him but mostly you just want him to go away.</p><p> Thenhe's sitting on the couch with Anna and they're talking and he puts his arm around her and you freeze up.</p><p> Yikes, he's totally misread the situation and how is she going to get out of this him exploding orhurting her or worse? To my surprise, she doesn't want to -- indeedshe's eager to make love to him.</p><p> That one night stand becomes --against her better judgment -- an ongoing fling that threatens to end her relationship with Burton (naturally) but finally unleashes her imagination.</p><p> Anna's choreography has never been better because she'sfinally feeling something.</p><p> Later I read the script and discover Pale is supposed to be inescapablyTHEATER: "INK" STAINED WRETCHES GET THEIR DUE THEATER: "TOOTSIE" IS A DRAG THEATER: "ALL MY SONS" LACKS A FAMILY THEATER: 'HADESTOWN" FINDS HEAVEN ONBROADWAY THEATER: "BURN THIS" BARELY SMOLDERS THEATER: THE PAIN OF "THE PAIN OF MYBELLIGERENCE"...</p><p> THEATER: QUESTIONING "SOCRATES" THEATER: "OKLAHOMA!" IS OK THE SECOND TIMEAROUND!...</p><p> THEATER: LESS IS MORE AT "MRS.</p><p> MURRAY'SMENAGERIE"...</p><p> THEATER: "THE CRADLE WILL ROCK" PUTS YOU TOSLEEP ► March (5) ► February (1) ► January (5) ► 2018 (33) ► 2017 (6) ► 2016 (2) ► 2015 (17) ► 2014 (2) ► 2013 (5) ► 2012 (17) ► 2011 (15) ► 2010 (10) ► 2009 (43) ► 2008 (86) ► 2007 (781) ► 2006 (2412) ► 2005 (5)sexy, a rough Brando-esque of a beast that may be rough and angry but my god women want him.</p><p> He's supposed to be a very good dresser (clearly costumer Clint Ramos went in another direction) and thesemismatched lovers are fated to be together.</p><p> Yet that magic something, that chemistry that is utterly lacking in these two acclaimed actors left me utterly at sea.</p><p> Nothing they said or did made sense because I neverthought for a second they wanted each other.</p><p> Eventually, the entireplay felt forced.</p><p> Uranowitz made the most of his cliche of a "funny gay roomie" but even he can't make sense of his character quoting an old movie and shaking his ass at a climactic moment.</p><p> Just as impenetrable to me is Anna's relationship with Burton; they don't seem to have any particular chemistry either.</p><p> We know he's rich and eventually we learn he's asked her to marry him several times.Even that is a surprise, since their relationship just doesn't feel thatsignificant.</p><p> If we're meant to believe he's the safe pick or thecompromise pick of Anna, that doesn't track either -- not because heseems so great but because it's hard to say what she thinks of him at all.</p><p> And while Pale is an obvious sort with no hidden depths, who is Anna? Larry "explains" her to Burton late in the show -- he says she'snever had to carry her own passport or plane ticket.</p><p> Huh? She's richtoo? Other than a brief reference to her fancy childhoodneighborhood, we don't have the slightest sense that she's wealthy orsheltered or privileged to any particular degree.</p><p> And if she is, the lure of Burton is surely lessened.</p><p> Who needs him? Even the music cues are confusing.</p><p> It's mostly a parade of 80s era songs (Yes's "Owner Of A Lonely Heart," Roxy Music's "Avalon," BruceSpringsteen's "I'm On Fire" and so on) keying us into the late 1987 time period.</p><p> The parade of tunes sets the tone for the entire evening, long before the play even starts.</p><p> But at the last second they drop in akiller: the moody classic "Pink Moon" by Nick Drake.</p><p> It's a great songand it's played just as the lights go down and the play begins.</p><p> If anything is supposed to tip the show's hand, to say "This is what we're about," playing a particular song just as the show begins should be it.But it's most assuredly not a key track from the 1980s, having beenreleased to zero attention in 1972 and finding belated success in 1999via a car ad.</p><p> More to the point, unlike every other song they play, it's not by any stretch a love song.</p><p> I'm not sure they even know that.</p><p> So does this mean the reputation for Burn This should fall further? Not really, not based on a single revival that doesn't work and at least in part for a reason that has nothing to do with the play itself.</p><p> If they do it again in ten years and it fails again, then maybe Wilson's final success will slip further in our estimation.</p><p> Happily, his key role inmaking Off Off Broadway viable will remain.</p><p> THEATER OF 2019 Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2 Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public *** Ink: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ** 1/2 Choir Boy ** 1/2 White Noise ** 1/2 Kiss Me, Kate *** Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2 Ain't Too Proud ** The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2 Mrs.</p><p> Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2 Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2 Socrates ** The Pain Of My Belligerence * Burn This ** Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend.</p><p> It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way.</p><p> He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests.</p><p> It’s available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website.</p><p> Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.</p><p> POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 5:20 PM NO COMMENTS: Post a Comment Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home
