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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2019
THEATER: "The Glass Menagerie" Sans Tricks Or
Treats
THE GLASS MENAGERIE ** out of ****
WILD PROJECT
Sometimes, thankfully, you just do the play. Classics can bring out the
devil in artists. What meta conceit can they slap onto a familiar drama
to "bring it to life"? Change the time period? Perform it Kabuki style?Cast all men? All women? They become so desperate to leave theirstamp on a classic that they forget it's a classic for a very good reason.
The play is worth doing, as is.
This new production of The Glass Menagerie co-directed by the
estimable Austin Pendleton & Peter Block implied some high-concept
makeover this war horse doesn't need. Press releases threatened it
would be Wes Craven meets Tennessee Williams, with a score inspiredby The Exorcist. Boo! Well, the trick was on us. No, the set is not filled
with props made out of glass, just the usual display of glass animals ona side table. The score by Sean Haggerty is moody but not intrusive, as
indeed are all the other tech elements. Sure, the sad and ghostly Laura
(who already haunts the house when not roaming the streets) canoften be seen holding a lonely vigil behind a scrim when she's notonstage.
And that's about it. This is your mother's Glass Menagerie and thank
goodness for it. It's modest pleasures are a straightforward
presentation of the text. It's not tilted towards one character over theothers. The directors don't strive you to think about what they're doinginstead of what Williams was doing. They honor the text. This
production may not catch fire, but at least it has the decency to hold
the play up to the light and let it illuminate what they do, rather thanthe other way around.MICHAEL 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 (71)
▼ October (9)
THEATER: "Terra Firma" Is On
Surely you know the story. The Wingfield family is a sad group, living
on dreams of yesterday or tomorrow because today is too depressingto bear. The father took off years ago, leaving behind a wife and two
children, his only contact being a postcard from far away stating
"Hello Goodbye." His photograph looms over the stage and their lives.
The mother Amanda (Ginger Grace) tells and retells about her glory
days as a desirable catch, the bygone era when gentlemen callers
would floor her porch. The daughter Laura (Alexandra Rose) pretends
to go to typing school but spends most of her time wandering theparks of St. Louis. Mostly, she hides at home, dreamily fussing overher glass menagerie, obsessing over a physical defect (a slight limp)
and on rare good days remembering the boy in high school she
fancied. The son Tom (Matt de Rogatis) struggles with the strait jacketof his life. He is trapped in a miserable job at a shoe warehouse, can'tfind a moment's peace to do the creative writing he longs for andwonders how he became the sole support for two women. He's not the
one who chose to get married and have kids so why is his life over
before it began?
With one eye on heading out to sea as a sailor, Tom invites over an
amiable coworker named Jim (Spencer Scott) as a potential love
interest for Laura. Jim turns out to be the very high school boy she had
a crush on, raising and then crashing all the hopes of the Wingfieldsone last time.Shaky Ground
THEATER: "The Glass
Menagerie" Sans Tricks Or
Trea...
THEATER: Wrestling With
Faith in "Heroes Of The Fo...
THEATER: A Bright Future In
Reach For "Chasing Rai...
THEATER: The Not-So "Great
Society"
THEATER: BOO! A Halloween
Scare Fest Closes Its Ey...
THEATER: "A(loft) Modulation"
-- A Play With Jazz ...
THEATER: "Freestyle Love
Supreme" and "Derren
Brow...
BOOKS: A Fantasy Classic
Finally Translated Into E...
► September (11)
► August (9)
► July (7)
► June (3)
► May (8)
► April (10)
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (8)
► 2018 (38)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (29)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
► 2005 (5)
The best aspect of this show is the balance. Sometimes, the character
Amanda dominates this drama. Other times it's the dreamy Tom as a
stand-in for Tennessee. And once in a while, Laura steals the show,
especially when her time with the Gentleman Caller Jim raises ourhopes even when we know better.
Not here. Everyone is admirably in their place. Amanda nags Tom, but
isn't an overbearing harpy, thus allowing us to forgive him for runningaway at the end. She can also be played as semi-delusional, likeBlanche at the end of A Streetcar Named Desire. Grace keeps Amanda
relatively grounded and real. Though Tom is often played as gay (he's
a stand-in for Tennessee, after all), de Rogatis presents an angry
young (straight) man restless with a yearning for freedom. He shinesespecially during the monologues addressed to the audience.
Often the Gentleman Caller is played by a drop-dead gorgeous actor,
the better for us to suspend our disbelief. But Scott convincingly looks
the part of a high school star who has gotten soft in the years since
those glory days. His athleticism is far behind him and Jim yearns forthose who can still remember the big man on campus he once was.Spencer makes his moments with Laura make sense. A dreamboat whokisses her can seem hard to believe or even cruel. (Amanda is quite
fragile and strange after all.) But this Jim is swept up by finding
someone who remembers him the way he was and not the way he is.Her attention to him is just as intoxicating as his attention to her.
The weak link unfortunately is Rose, making her professional debut.
In a production titled towards the mother or son, her lack of readinessfor such a major role wouldn't matter as much. But the balance theystrive for simply can't work when one of the four legs of this sturdytable isn't ready to bear its weight. So it's uneven and ultimately
unsatisfying. Yet a Glass Menagerie that doesn't attempt to outdo
Tennessee will always be welcome.
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) **
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 11:25 PM
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2019
THEATER: "The Glass Menagerie" Sans Tricks Or
Treats
THE GLASS MENAGERIE ** out of ****
WILD PROJECT
Sometimes, thankfully, you just do the play. Classics can bring out the
devil in artists. What meta conceit can they slap onto a familiar drama
to "bring it to life"? Change the time period? Perform it Kabuki style?Cast all men? All women? They become so desperate to leave theirstamp on a classic that they forget it's a classic for a very good reason.
The play is worth doing, as is.
This new production of The Glass Menagerie co-directed by the
estimable Austin Pendleton & Peter Block implied some high-concept
makeover this war horse doesn't need. Press releases threatened it
would be Wes Craven meets Tennessee Williams, with a score inspiredby The Exorcist. Boo! Well, the trick was on us. No, the set is not filled
with props made out of glass, just the usual display of glass animals ona side table. The score by Sean Haggerty is moody but not intrusive, as
indeed are all the other tech elements. Sure, the sad and ghostly Laura
(who already haunts the house when not roaming the streets) canoften be seen holding a lonely vigil behind a scrim when she's notonstage.
And that's about it. This is your mother's Glass Menagerie and thank
goodness for it. It's modest pleasures are a straightforward
presentation of the text. It's not tilted towards one character over theothers. The directors don't strive you to think about what they're doinginstead of what Williams was doing. They honor the text. This
production may not catch fire, but at least it has the decency to hold
the play up to the light and let it illuminate what they do, rather thanthe other way around.MICHAEL 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 (71)
▼ October (9)
THEATER: "Terra Firma" Is On
Surely you know the story. The Wingfield family is a sad group, living
on dreams of yesterday or tomorrow because today is too depressingto bear. The father took off years ago, leaving behind a wife and two
children, his only contact being a postcard from far away stating
"Hello Goodbye." His photograph looms over the stage and their lives.
The mother Amanda (Ginger Grace) tells and retells about her glory
days as a desirable catch, the bygone era when gentlemen callers
would floor her porch. The daughter Laura (Alexandra Rose) pretends
to go to typing school but spends most of her time wandering theparks of St. Louis. Mostly, she hides at home, dreamily fussing overher glass menagerie, obsessing over a physical defect (a slight limp)
and on rare good days remembering the boy in high school she
fancied. The son Tom (Matt de Rogatis) struggles with the strait jacketof his life. He is trapped in a miserable job at a shoe warehouse, can'tfind a moment's peace to do the creative writing he longs for andwonders how he became the sole support for two women. He's not the
one who chose to get married and have kids so why is his life over
before it began?
With one eye on heading out to sea as a sailor, Tom invites over an
amiable coworker named Jim (Spencer Scott) as a potential love
interest for Laura. Jim turns out to be the very high school boy she had
a crush on, raising and then crashing all the hopes of the Wingfieldsone last time.Shaky Ground
THEATER: "The Glass
Menagerie" Sans Tricks Or
Trea...
THEATER: Wrestling With
Faith in "Heroes Of The Fo...
THEATER: A Bright Future In
Reach For "Chasing Rai...
THEATER: The Not-So "Great
Society"
THEATER: BOO! A Halloween
Scare Fest Closes Its Ey...
THEATER: "A(loft) Modulation"
-- A Play With Jazz ...
THEATER: "Freestyle Love
Supreme" and "Derren
Brow...
BOOKS: A Fantasy Classic
Finally Translated Into E...
► September (11)
► August (9)
► July (7)
► June (3)
► May (8)
► April (10)
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (8)
► 2018 (38)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (29)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
► 2005 (5)
The best aspect of this show is the balance. Sometimes, the character
Amanda dominates this drama. Other times it's the dreamy Tom as a
stand-in for Tennessee. And once in a while, Laura steals the show,
especially when her time with the Gentleman Caller Jim raises ourhopes even when we know better.
Not here. Everyone is admirably in their place. Amanda nags Tom, but
isn't an overbearing harpy, thus allowing us to forgive him for runningaway at the end. She can also be played as semi-delusional, likeBlanche at the end of A Streetcar Named Desire. Grace keeps Amanda
relatively grounded and real. Though Tom is often played as gay (he's
a stand-in for Tennessee, after all), de Rogatis presents an angry
young (straight) man restless with a yearning for freedom. He shinesespecially during the monologues addressed to the audience.
Often the Gentleman Caller is played by a drop-dead gorgeous actor,
the better for us to suspend our disbelief. But Scott convincingly looks
the part of a high school star who has gotten soft in the years since
those glory days. His athleticism is far behind him and Jim yearns forthose who can still remember the big man on campus he once was.Spencer makes his moments with Laura make sense. A dreamboat whokisses her can seem hard to believe or even cruel. (Amanda is quite
fragile and strange after all.) But this Jim is swept up by finding
someone who remembers him the way he was and not the way he is.Her attention to him is just as intoxicating as his attention to her.
The weak link unfortunately is Rose, making her professional debut.
In a production titled towards the mother or son, her lack of readinessfor such a major role wouldn't matter as much. But the balance theystrive for simply can't work when one of the four legs of this sturdytable isn't ready to bear its weight. So it's uneven and ultimately
unsatisfying. Yet a Glass Menagerie that doesn't attempt to outdo
Tennessee will always be welcome.
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) **
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 11:25 PM
NO COMMENTS:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home