Full Article Text
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2019
THEATER: "Einstein's Dreams" Too Elusive For
Reality
EINSTEIN'S DREAMS * 1/2 out of ****
PROSPECT THEATER COMPANY AT 59E59
Alan Lightman's charming novel Einstein's Dreams was a best-selling
sensation in 1992. Lightman's day job is a physicist and his first and
best work of fiction playfully combines both disciplines. In it, heimagines Einstein is working on his Theory of Relativity and dreams
about the various ways one can think about time. What if time really
did stand still? What if time proceeded in circles? Or skipped andstuttered or reversed itself unexpectedly? Each dream of time iscaptured in a fragmentary passage lasting just a few pages at most. It'snot really a novel or even a collection of short stories, but more like a
variation on a theme.
Lightman lets you feel you grasp certain abstract scientific ideas, all
while entertaining you thoroughly. But there's no plot to speak of, noover-arching thread. It's just fanciful fun. Even the packaging of the
book added to its appeal: Einstein's Dream was about 5 inches wide by
7 inches tall, almost a square, friendly little book. It fit into your hands
comfortably and made this Italo Calvino-like work quite approachable.Instead of thinking, a book about physics and running away, you sawit and smiled and picked it up.
I read it, I enjoyed it and not for a single moment did I think, this
should be adapted for the stage! It's one of those works that wouldseem to resist a transformation into film or theater or TV. Of course, Ifelt the same about Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of
Being. Turn that daunting, philosophical novel into a film? Absurd!
Turn the classic Powell-Pressburger movie
A Matter Of Life and
Death into a stage play? Ridiculous!
Well, as a film, Unbearable became another masterpiece. As a play, A
Matter Of Life and Death was a disaster. But hey, they tried! SoMICHAEL 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 (89)
▼ November (9)
THEATER: "Pump Girl" Finds A
Gusher At Irish Rep
anything can be turned into anything else and the less likely, perhaps
the more remarkable it will be if you get the alchemy right.
Apparently, people have been trying and trying with Einstein'sDreams ever since it was published. Per Wikipedia, this work has been
adapted endlessly into plays and song cycles and dance pieces and here
a musical, one that first debuted in 2005. As far as I know, none of
them have worked. This version is no different. Joanne SydneyLessner did the book and Joshua Rosenblum did the music and theyboth worked on the lyrics. Here, Time is personified into a dream-like
lover for young Albert Einstein. He keeps dreaming of Time in all her
fickle possibilities and she teases him on towards the revelation of theTheory that will make him immortal.
Little of this works, despite a game cast that struggles to sing the
awkward songs the creative team crafted. However, the Prospect
Theater Company has given this ineffective mess directed by CaraReichel an exceptionally handsome production. Einstein's desk at thepatent office sits on a round dais stage left. A staircase on stage rightswoops up to a wide platform on the second level. Striking design work
covers the stage floor with expected but effective details of time and
the such. And a giant round clock face hangs above the stage, servingas a screen for countless projections, the vast majority of which areimpressive and on point.
David Bengali did the excellent projection design and Sidney Shannon
the period-friendly costumes. Kevin Heard dealt with the sounddesign that balances actors, singers and a fine six-piece orchestra ledby music director and pianist Milton Granger, not to mention varioussubtle sound cues. And the ravishing scenic design is by Isabel
Mengyuan Le. It's a pleasure to behold while you wait for the show to
begin and something to study when the show quickly goes awry. Iremember very little of the musical's feverish attempts to give theerudite and funny and odd musings of Lightman some sort of plot. Butthe set? I'd love to spend more time with it.THEATER: "The Crucible" Is
Bedlam In Every Way
THEATER: "Einstein's Dreams"
Too Elusive For Reali...
BOOKS: Is Finance The Root Of
All Evil?
THEATER: Good Intentions No
Substitute For Good Me...
THEATER: "Richard III," A
Schemer Undone By Greed,...
THEATER: "Enchanted April" --
The Charming Tale Th...
THEATER: To Delete or Not To
Delete, That Is The D...
MOVIES: "American Dharma"
Bum Steve Bannon
► October (21)
► September (10)
► August (9)
► July (7)
► June (3)
► May (6)
► April (10)
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (8)
► 2018 (38)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (22)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
► 2005 (5)
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. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes
Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam)
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book
lover’s best friend. 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. 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. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called
Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 11:58 PM
NO COMMENTS:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home
THEATER: "Einstein's Dreams" Too Elusive For
Reality
EINSTEIN'S DREAMS * 1/2 out of ****
PROSPECT THEATER COMPANY AT 59E59
Alan Lightman's charming novel Einstein's Dreams was a best-selling
sensation in 1992. Lightman's day job is a physicist and his first and
best work of fiction playfully combines both disciplines. In it, heimagines Einstein is working on his Theory of Relativity and dreams
about the various ways one can think about time. What if time really
did stand still? What if time proceeded in circles? Or skipped andstuttered or reversed itself unexpectedly? Each dream of time iscaptured in a fragmentary passage lasting just a few pages at most. It'snot really a novel or even a collection of short stories, but more like a
variation on a theme.
Lightman lets you feel you grasp certain abstract scientific ideas, all
while entertaining you thoroughly. But there's no plot to speak of, noover-arching thread. It's just fanciful fun. Even the packaging of the
book added to its appeal: Einstein's Dream was about 5 inches wide by
7 inches tall, almost a square, friendly little book. It fit into your hands
comfortably and made this Italo Calvino-like work quite approachable.Instead of thinking, a book about physics and running away, you sawit and smiled and picked it up.
I read it, I enjoyed it and not for a single moment did I think, this
should be adapted for the stage! It's one of those works that wouldseem to resist a transformation into film or theater or TV. Of course, Ifelt the same about Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of
Being. Turn that daunting, philosophical novel into a film? Absurd!
Turn the classic Powell-Pressburger movie
A Matter Of Life and
Death into a stage play? Ridiculous!
Well, as a film, Unbearable became another masterpiece. As a play, A
Matter Of Life and Death was a disaster. But hey, they tried! SoMICHAEL 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 (89)
▼ November (9)
THEATER: "Pump Girl" Finds A
Gusher At Irish Rep
anything can be turned into anything else and the less likely, perhaps
the more remarkable it will be if you get the alchemy right.
Apparently, people have been trying and trying with Einstein'sDreams ever since it was published. Per Wikipedia, this work has been
adapted endlessly into plays and song cycles and dance pieces and here
a musical, one that first debuted in 2005. As far as I know, none of
them have worked. This version is no different. Joanne SydneyLessner did the book and Joshua Rosenblum did the music and theyboth worked on the lyrics. Here, Time is personified into a dream-like
lover for young Albert Einstein. He keeps dreaming of Time in all her
fickle possibilities and she teases him on towards the revelation of theTheory that will make him immortal.
Little of this works, despite a game cast that struggles to sing the
awkward songs the creative team crafted. However, the Prospect
Theater Company has given this ineffective mess directed by CaraReichel an exceptionally handsome production. Einstein's desk at thepatent office sits on a round dais stage left. A staircase on stage rightswoops up to a wide platform on the second level. Striking design work
covers the stage floor with expected but effective details of time and
the such. And a giant round clock face hangs above the stage, servingas a screen for countless projections, the vast majority of which areimpressive and on point.
David Bengali did the excellent projection design and Sidney Shannon
the period-friendly costumes. Kevin Heard dealt with the sounddesign that balances actors, singers and a fine six-piece orchestra ledby music director and pianist Milton Granger, not to mention varioussubtle sound cues. And the ravishing scenic design is by Isabel
Mengyuan Le. It's a pleasure to behold while you wait for the show to
begin and something to study when the show quickly goes awry. Iremember very little of the musical's feverish attempts to give theerudite and funny and odd musings of Lightman some sort of plot. Butthe set? I'd love to spend more time with it.THEATER: "The Crucible" Is
Bedlam In Every Way
THEATER: "Einstein's Dreams"
Too Elusive For Reali...
BOOKS: Is Finance The Root Of
All Evil?
THEATER: Good Intentions No
Substitute For Good Me...
THEATER: "Richard III," A
Schemer Undone By Greed,...
THEATER: "Enchanted April" --
The Charming Tale Th...
THEATER: To Delete or Not To
Delete, That Is The D...
MOVIES: "American Dharma"
Bum Steve Bannon
► October (21)
► September (10)
► August (9)
► July (7)
► June (3)
► May (6)
► April (10)
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (8)
► 2018 (38)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (22)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
► 2005 (5)
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. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes
Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam)
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book
lover’s best friend. 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. 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. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called
Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 11:58 PM
NO COMMENTS:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home